The Douay Catechism of 1649
by Henry Tuberville, D.D.
AN
ABRIDGMENT
OF THE
CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE:
WITH PROOFS OF SCRIPTURE ON
POINTS CONTROVERTED
BY WAY OF QUESTION AND ANSWER. COMPOSED IN 1649,
BY REV. HENRY TUBERVILLE, D.D.,
OF THE ENGLISH COLLEGE OF DOUAY:
NOW APPROVED AND RECOMMENDED FOR HIS DIOCESE, BY
THE RIGHT REV. BENEDICT
BISHOP OF BOSTON.
"This is the way, walk ye in it. " - Isaiah xxx. 21.
NEW YORK:
P. J. KENEDY,
EXCELSIOR CATHOLIC PUBLISHING HOUSE,
5 BARCLAY STREET
1
THE AUTHOR TO THE READER
THE principle part of the Catechism is an Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine;
defended and cleared by proofs of scripture, in points controverted between Catholics
and Sectaries; and explained by the familiar way of question and answer.
To this, in the former impressions, was only adjoined a necessary exposition of the
Mass, our Lady's Office, and the festival days of the year, but to this last edition is added,
an Explanation of certain ceremonies of the Church, which now renders it more
complete for instructing the ignorant, in the whole doctrine and discipline of the
Catholic Church.
Besides I have corrected some false citations, and other errata, which by the printer's
negligence, occurred in the former impressions.
Peruse it, good reader, with such charity as I have penned it, and if by it perusal thou
shalt become more knowing in the law of Christ, and in practice more dutiful to God,
and thy neighbour, it will abundantly recompense the labour of
Thy well-wishing friend
And servant in CHRIST
HT
APPROBATIO
CUM Liber inscriptus, An Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine, &c. authore viro
doctor H. T. mihi probe note, intertia Editione, quam non indiligenter perlegi, nihil
continea contra sanam Doctrinam vel bonos Mores; multa vero partim scitu
necessaria, partim valde utilia, dilucide & succincte, in Fide Catholica instituen dis
proponat, dignum censeo qui ob publicam utilitatem Typis evulgetur.
Datum Duaci, Martii n, 1649.
Gulielmus Hydeus, S. T. D., ac professor,
Colligii Anglorum Duacensis Preeses
& Librorum Censor.
APPROBATION.
WE feel pleasure in recommending to the faithful of our Diocese this edition of "An
Abridgment of the Christian Doctrine, with proofs of Scripture on points controverted,"
as we have found it essentially conformable to the Dublin edition of 1820, of the
correctness of which we entertain no doubt.
+ BENEDICT, Bp Bn.
Boston, April 24th, 1833
CONTENTS
CHAP. l. What a Christian is: And of the Blessed Trinity l
CHAP. 2. Faith Explained 2
CHAP. 3. The Creed Expounded 3
The First Article 3
The Second Article 5
The Third Article 7
The Fourth Article 7
The Fifth Article 8
The Sixth Article 9
The Seventh Article 9
The Eighth Article 11
The Ninth Article 11
The Tenth Article 18
The Eleventh Article 20
The Twelfth Article 21
CHAP. 4. Hope and Prayer Explained 21
CHAP. 5. The Lord's Prayer Expounded 24
The First Petition 25
The Second Petition 25
The Third Petition 26
The Fourth Petition 26
The Fifth Petition 26
The Sixth Petition 27
The Seventh Petition 27
CHAP. 6. The Hail Mary, or Angelical Salutation 28
The First Part of the Hail Mary 28
The Second Part of the Hail Mary 29
The Third Part of the Hail Mary 29
CHAP. 7. Charity Expounded 30
CHAP. 8. Of the Commandments in general 32
OF THE COMMANDMENTS IN PARTICULAR 33
The First Commandment Expounded 33
The Second Commandment Expounded 38
The Third Commandment Expounded 39
THE SECOND TABLE OF THE LAW 41
The Fourth Commandment Expounded 41
The Fifth Commandment Expounded 43
The Sixth Commandment Expounded 44
The Seventh Commandment Expounded 45
The Eighth Commandment Expounded 46
The Ninth and Tenth Commandments Expounded 47
CHAP. 9. The Precepts of the Church Expounded 48
The First Precept of the Church Expounded 48
The Second Precept of the Church Expounded 49
IV
The Third Precept of the Church Expounded 50
The Fourth Precept of the Church Expounded 50
The Fifth Precept of the Church Expounded 50
The Sixth Precept of the Church Expounded 50
CHAP. 10. The Council of Christ and his Church Expounded 51
The First Counsel 51
The Second Counsel 51
The Third Counsel 52
CHAP. 11. Of the Sacraments in general 52
Baptism Expounded 54
Confirmation Expounded 57
The Eucharist Expounded 59
Penance Expounded 63
Extreme Unction Expounded 66
Holy Order Expounded 67
Matrimony Expounded 69
CHAP. 12. The Cardinal Virtues Expounded 72
CHAP. 13. The Gifts of the Holy Ghost Expounded 72
CHAP. 14. The Twelve Fruits of the Holy Ghost Expounded 73
CHAP. 15. The Works of Mercy (corporal and spiritual) Expounded 74
CHAP. 16. The Eight Beatitudes 75
CHAP. 17. The Kinds of Sin Expounded 75
CHAP. 18. The Seven Deadly Sins Expounded 78
Pride Expounded 78
Covetousness Expounded 79
Lechery Expounded 80
Envy Expounded 81
Gluttony Expounded 81
Anger Expounded 82
Sloth Expounded 82
CHAP. 19. The Sins against the Holy Ghost Expounded 83
CHAP. 20. The Sins that cry to Heaven for Vengeance Expounded 84
CHAP. 21. The Four Last Things Expounded 85
CHAP. 22. The Substance or Essence, and Ceremonies of the Mass, Expounded 86
CHAP. 23. The Primer or Office of our Blessed Lady, Expounded 95
The Particulars of the Office Expounded 96
CHAP. 24. The Solemnities of CHRIST our Lord, (instituted for the most part by the
Apostles) and the Sundays of the Year, expounded 99
The Feasts of our Blessed Lady, and the Saints, Expounded 102
CHAP. 25. Some Ceremonies of the Church Expounded 105
Chapter 1.
What a Christian is: And of the Blessed Trinity.
Q. l. Quest. CHILD, what religion
are you of?
Ans. Sir, by the benefit and grace of God,
I am Christian.
Q. 2. Whom understand you by a
Christian?
A. Him that inwardly believes and
outwardly professes the law of Christ.
Q. 3. When are we obliged to make
an external profession of it?
A. As often as God's honour, our own, or
neighbour's good requires it.
Q. 4. How prove you that we are
bound outwardly to profess our
faith?
A. Out of St. Matt. x. 32, where Christ
saith, Every one, therefore, that shall
confess me before men, I will confess
him before my Father who is in heaven.
But he that shall deny me before men, I
also will deny him before my Father who
is in heaven.
Q. 5. Are we bound also to venture
the ruin of our estates, the loss of
our friends, and to lay down our
very lives for the profession and
defence of our faith?
A. Doubtless we are: seeing the reward
we expect in heaven, infinitely exceeds
all the pleasures and punishments of
this life. And because Christ the Son of
the living God, has suffered far greater
things for us, even to a disgraceful death
on the cross? and therefore, it were base
ingratitude in us, not to be ready to give
our lives for him as often as his honour
shall require it. Luke, xiv. 26, 33.
Q. 6. In what doth the faith and
law of Christ chiefly consist?
A. In two principle mysteries, namely,
the unity and trinity of God, and the
incarnation and death of our Saviour.
Q. 7. What means the unity and
trinity of God?
A. It means, that in God there is but one
only divine nature or essence, and that
in the same one and divine nature there
are three persons, the Father, and the
Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Q. 8. How show you that?
A. Out of John, v. 7. There are three that
give testimony in heaven, the Father, the
Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these
three are one.
Q. 9. Why are there but three
Persons only?
A. Because the Father had no beginning,
nor proceeds from any other person; the
Son proceeds from the Father, and Holy
Ghost proceeds from the Father and the
Son.
Q. 10. What means the incarnation
and death of our Saviour?
A. It means that the second person of
the blessed Trinity was made man, and
died on the cross to save us.
Q. 11. In what are these two
mysteries signified?
A. In the sign of the cross, as it is made
by Catholics, for when we put our right
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hand to our head, saying, In the name
we signify Unity; and when we make the
sign of the cross saying, Of the Father,
and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost,
we signify Trinity.
Q. 12. How doth the sign of the
cross represent the incarnation
and death of our Saviour?
A. By putting us in mind that he was
made man and died upon the cross for
us.
Chapter 2
Faith Explained
Q. 13. WHAT is faith?
A. It is a gift of God or a supernatural
quality, infused by God into the soul, by
which we firmly believe all those things
which he hath any way revealed to us.
Q. 14. Is faith necessary to
salvation?
A. It is; St. Paul assuring that without
faith it is impossible to please God. Heb.
xi. 6. and St. Mark, xvi. 16, saying, He
that believeth not shall be condemned.
Q. 15. Why must we firmly believe
matters of faith?
A. Because God hath revealed them, who
can neither deceive, nor be deceived. A
second reason is, because not only all
points of faith, but also the rule, or
necessary and infallible means whereby
to know them, to wit, the church's oral
and universal tradition, are absolutely
certain, and cannot lead us into error in
faith; else we can never sufficiently be
assured what is faith, or what is not.
Q. 16. If a man should deny, or
obstinately doubt of some one
point of faith, would he be thereby
lose his whole faith?
A. Yes, he would; because true faith
must always be entire, and he that fails
in one, is made guilty of all, by
discrediting the authority of God
revealing it.
Q. 17. Is it not enough to believe all
that is written in the Bible?
A. No, it is not: For we must also believe
all apostolic tradition.
Q. 18. How prove you that?
A. Out of 2 Thess. ii. 15. Therefore
brethren (saith St. Paul) stand and hold
ye the traditions which ye have learned,
whether by word, or by our Epistle.
Q. 19. What other proof have you?
A. The apostle's Creed, which all are
bound to believe, although it be not in
Scripture.
Q. 20. Is faith only, as excluding
good works, sufficient to
salvation?
A. No: it is not: St. James, ii. 24, saying,
Do you see how that by works a man is
justified, and not by faith only? And St.
Paul, saying, 1 Cor. xiii. 2. If I should
have all faith, so that I could remove
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mountains, and not have charity, I am
nothing. And if I should distribute all
my goods to feed the poor, and if I
should deliver by body to be burned, and
have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.
Q. 21. What faith will suffice to
justify?
A. Faith working by charity in Jesus
Christ.
Q. 22. What vice is opposite to
faith?
A. Heresy.
Q. 23. What is Heresy?
A. Is it an obstinate error in things that
are of faith.
Q. 24. Is it a grievous sin?
A. A very grievous one, because it wholly
divides a man from God, and leads to
atheism, Christ saying, if he will not
hear the church let him be to thee as an
heathen and a publican, Matt, xviii. 17.
Chapter 3.
The Creed Expounded
Q. 25. WHAT is the creed?
A. It is the sum of belief.
Q. 26. Who made it?
A. The twelve apostles.
Q. 27. At what time did they make
it?
A. Before they divided themselves into
the several countries of the world to
preach the gospel.
Q. 28. For what end did they make
it?
A. That so they might be able to teach
one and the same doctrine in all places.
Q. 29. What doth the creed
contain?
A. All those chief things which we are
bound to believe, concerning God and
his church.
The First Article
Q. 30. What is the first article of
the creed?
A. I believe in God the Father Almighty,
Creator of heaven and earth.
Q. 31. What signifies I believe?
A. It signifies as much as I most firmly
and undoubtedly hold.
Q. 32. What means, I believe in
God?
A. It means that not only that I firmly
believe there is a God, but also that I am
piously affected to him, as to say chiefest
good and last end, with confidence in
him, or otherwise that I move unto him
by faith, hope, and charity.
Q. 33. What signifies the word
Father?
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A. It signifies the first person of the most
blessed Trinity, who by nature is the
Father of his own only begotten Son, the
second Person of the blessed Trinity; by
adoption is the Father of all good
Christians; and by creations is the
Father of all creatures.
Q. 34. What means the word
Almighty?
A. It means that God is able to do all
things as he pleaseth; that he sees all
things, knows all things, and governs all
things.
Q. 35. Why is he called Almighty in
this place?
A. That we might doubt of nothing
which follows.
Q. 36. What signify the words,
Creator of heaven and earth?
A. They signify that God made heaven
and earth, and all creatures in them, of
nothing, by his sole word, Gen. i.
Q. 37. What moved God to make
them?
A. His own mere goodness, that so he
might communicate himself to angels,
and to men, for whom he made all other
creatures.
Q. 38. When did God create the
angels?
A. On the first day when he created
heaven and earth, Gen. i. where Moses
implies the creation of angels in the
word heaven, and makes no other
mention of it. The Nicene creed,
interpreting the Apostles' Creed, says,
that the words Creator of heaven and
earth, mean all things visible and
invisible.
Q. 39. For what end did God create
them?
A. To be partakers of his glory, and our
guardians.
Q. 40. How prove you by
Scripture, that they be our
guardians?
A. Out of St. Matt, xviii. 10, where Christ
saith 'See that you despise not one of
these little ones: Fori day unto you,
their angels in heaven always see the
face of my Father who is in heaven.'
Q. 41. Do the angels know our
necessities, and hear our prayers?
A. Doubtless they do, since God has
deputed them to be our guardians;
which is also proved out of Zach. i 12.
where an angel prays for two whole
cities; the words are 'Then the angel of
the Lord answered and said, O Lord of
hosts, how long wilt thou not have
mercy on the cities of Juda and
Jerusalem, against which thou hast been
angry these seventy years?'
Q. 42. What Scripture have you for
praying to angels?
A. Gen. xlviii. 16, where Jacob on his
death bed prayed to an angel for
Ephraim and Manasses, saying, 'The
angel of the Lord that delivered me from
all evils, bless these children.'
This place is cited for prayer to the
angels in the notes of the Rhemish
Testament upon it, and is confirmed to
signify a created angel by St. Basil, lib. 3.
cont. Dunon. sub initio: And St.
Chrysosthom. 7. in laudem Sancti Pauli.
Q. 43. How did Lucifer and his
fellow angels fall from their
dignity in heaven?
A. By a rebellious sin of pride.
Q. 44. With what shall their ruins
be repaired?
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A. Will holy men.
Q. 45. When and to what likeness
did God create man?
A. On the sixth day, and to his own
likeness: Gen. i. 27.
Q. 46. In what doth the similitude
consist?
A. In this, that man is in his soul an
incorporeal, intellectual and immortal
spirit, as God is. And in this, that as in
God there is but one most divine nature
or essence, and yet three distinct
Persons; so in man there is but one
indivisible soul, and yet in that soul
three distinct powers, will, memory, and
understanding.
Q. 47. How do you prove the soul
to be immortal?
A. Out of Matt. x. 28, where Christ saith,
'Fear not them that kill the body, and
cannot kill the soul.'
Q. 48. What other proof have you?
A. Out of Eccles. xii. 7. At our death the
dust returns to the earth from whence it
was, and the spirit to God that gave it.
Q. 49. In what state did God create
man?
A. In the state of original justice, and
perfection of all natural gifts.
Q. 50. Do we owe much to God for
our creation?
A. Very much, seeing he made us in such
perfect state, creating us for himself, and
all things else for us.
Q. 51. How did we lose original
justice?
A. By Adam's disobedience to God, in
eating the forbidden fruit.
Q. 52. In what state are we now
born?
A. In the state of original sin, and prone
to actual sin, subject to death.
Q. 53. How prove you that?
A. Out of Rom. v. 12. 'By one man sin
entered into the world, and by sin death;
and so unto all men death did pass, in
whom all have sinned.'
Q. 54. Had man ever died, if he had
never sinned?
A. No, he had not, but had been
converted by the tree of life, and been
translated alive into the fellowship of the
angels.
The Second Article
Q. 55. SAY the second article.
A. And in Jesus Christ his only Son our
Lord.
Q. 56. Of what treats this article?
A. Of the second person of the blessed
Trinity, in whom we also believe and put
our trust.
Q. 57. What is the second Person?
A. He is true God, and true Man, in one
Person.
Q. 58. How prove you that?
A. Out of St. John's Gospel, chap. i. 1. 'In
the beginning was the Word, and the
Word was with God, and the Word was
God, &c. And the Word was made flesh,
and dwelt among us.'
Q. 59. What other proof have you?
A. Out of Phil. ii. 6, 7, where St. Paul
saith, 'That Christ when he was in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to
be equal with God, but he hath lessened
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himself, taking the form of a servant,
made unto the likeness of men; and
found in habit as a man.
Q. 60. Why should God be man?
A. To redeem and save lost man.
Q. 61. Was his incarnation
necessary for that end?
A. In the manner it was; because our
offences against God were in some sort
infinite; as being against his infinite
goodness; and therefore required an
infinite satisfaction; which no one could
make but God and therefore he was
made man.
Q. 62. What other proof have you
for the necessity of the
Incarnation?
A. Because God is in himself so spiritual,
sublime, and abstract a thing, that if he
had not in his mercy adapted his own
inscrutable greatness to the littleness of
our sensible capacity, by being made
man, scarce on of a thousand would ever
have been able to know anything to the
purpose of him; or consequently to love
and serve him as they ought, (which is
the necessary means of our salvation)
since nothing is efficaciously willed
which is not first well understood.
Q. 63. What benefit have we by the
knowledge of God made man?
A. It much inflames us with the love of
God, who could not more have dignified
men's nature, or shown more love to the
world, then to send down his only Son to
redeem it in our flesh.
Q. 64. What signifies the name of
Jesus?
A. It signifies a Saviour, St. Matt. i. 21.
Q. 65. Is any special honour due to
that name?
A. There is, because it is the highest title
of God made man.
Q. 66. How prove you that?
A. Out of Phil. ii. 8, 9, 10, where we read,
'God hath given unto Christ because he
hath humbled himself unto the death of
the cross, a name which is above all
names, the name of Jesus.'
Q. 67. What other proof have you?
A. Because there is no other name under
heaven given to man, in which we must
be saved. Acts iv. 12.
Q. 68. How prove you that we must
bow at this name?
A. Out of Phil. ii. 10. That in the name of
Jesus every knee should bow of those
that are in heaven, on earth and in hell.
Q. 69. What signifies the name
Christ?
A. It signifies anointed.
Q. 70. Why was he called
anointed?
A. Because he was a priest, a prophet,
and a king to all which unction pertains.
Q. 71. With what was Christ
anointed?
A. With all the plenitude of divine grace.
Q. 72. What mean the words, his
only Son our Lord?
A. They mean that Jesus Christ is the
only Son of God the Father, begotten, as
he is God, and of the same Father from
all eternity, without a mother; and
therefore is coequal and consubstantial
to his Father; and consequently infinite,
omnipotent Creator, and so Lord of us
and all things, as the Father is.
The Third Article
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Q. 73. WHAT is the third article?
A. Who was conceived by the Holy
Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary.
Q. 74. What means, who was
conceived by the Holy Ghost?
A. It means that the second Person of
the blessed Trinity took flesh of the
Virgin Mary, not by a human generation,
but by the work of the Holy Ghost.
Q. 75. How prove you that?
A. Out of St. Luke i. 31, 35. Behold (saith
the angel) thou shalt conceive and bear a
Son, &c. the Holy Ghost shall come upon
thee, and the virtue of the Highest shall
overshadow thee.
Q. 76. What understand you by the
words, born of the Virgin Mary?
A. I understand that Christ was born of
her at midnight, in a poor stable at
Bethlehem, between an ox and an ass.
Q. 77. Why at midnight?
A. To signify that he came to take away
the darkness of our sins.
Q. 78. Why in Bethlehem?
A. Because it was the head city of
David's family, and Christ was of David's
race.
Q. 79. Why in a poor stable?
A. To teach us to love poverty and
contempt of this world.
Q. 80. Why between an ox and an
ass?
A. To fulfil that of the prophet, Thou
shalt be known, O Lord, between two
beasts, Habacuc xii. juxta Sept.
Q. 81. What doth the birth of
Christ avail us?
A. It perfecteth in us faith, hope, and
charity.
Q. 82. What signifies, "born of the
Virgin Mary?"
A. It signifies that Our Lady was a virgin
not only before, but also in, and after
childbirth.
The Fourth Article
Q. 83. WHAT is the fourth article?
A. Suffered under Pontius Pilate, was
crucified dead and buried.
Q. 84. What understand you by
suffering under Pontius Pilate?
A. I understand that Christ, after a
painful life of thirty-three years, suffered
most bitter torments under the wicked
president Pontius Pilate.
Q. 85. Where did he begin those
sufferings?
A. In the garden of Gethsemani; that as
sin began in the garden by the first
Adam, so might grace also, by the
second.
Q. 86. What are those torments?
A. His bloody sweat, his whipping at the
pillar, his purple garment, his crown of
thorns, his Sceptre of a reed, his
carrying the cross, and many others.
Q. 87. What understand you by the
words, was crucified?
A. I understand, he was nailed to a
disgraceful cross between two thieves,
for our offences, and to save us.
Q. 88. Is it lawful to honour the
cross?
A. Yes, with a relative honour it is,
because it is a special memorial of our
7
Saviour's passion, and is called the sign
of the Son of man, St. Matt. xxiv. 30.
Q. 89. What other reason have
you?
A. Because the cross was the sacred
altar, on which Christ offered his bloody
sacrifice.
Q. 90. What scripture have you for
it?
A. Gal. vi. 14. 'God forbid, (saith St.
Paul,) that I should glory, but in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.'
Q. 91. What other proof have you?
A. Out of Phil. iii. 18. Many walk (saith
St. Paul) of whom I have often told you,
and now again weeping, I tell you that
they are enemies to the cross of Christ,
&c. whose end is perdition. And out of
Ezek. ix. 4, where we read, That such as
were signed with the sign Tau, (which
was a picture and figure of the cross,)
were saved from the exterminating
angel, and only such.
Q. 92. What signifies the word
dead?
A. It signifies that Christ suffered a true
and real death.
Q. 93. Why was it requisite he
should die?
A. To free us from the death of sin.
Q. 94. Why died he, crying with a
loud voice?
A. To show he had power of his own life;
and he freely gave it up for us, being
strong and vigorous.
Q. 95. Why died he bowing down
his head?
A. To signify his obedience to his Father,
in the acceptance of his disgraceful
death.
Q. 96. What means buried?
A. It means, that his body was laid in a
new sepulchre, and buried with honour,
as the prophet had foretold, Isa. xi. 10.
The Fifth Article
Q. 97. WHAT is the fifth article?
A. He descended into hell, the third day
he arose again from the dead.
Q. 98. What means, he descended
into Hell?
A. It means, that as soon as Christ was
dead, he descended into Limbo, to free
the holy fathers who were there.
Q. 99. How prove you that?
A. Out of Acts ii. 24, 27. 'Christ being
slain, God raised him up loosing the
sorrows of hell, as it was foretold by the
prophet,' Psalm xv. 10. 'Thou wilt not
leave my soul in hell, nor wilt thou give
thy Holy One to see corruption.'
Q. too. What other proof have
you?
A. Ephes. iv. 8, 9. 'He ascending on high,
hath led captivity captive; he gave gifts
to men; and that he ascended,' what is it
but because he descended into the lower
parts of the earth?
Q. 101. Did he not descend to
purgatory to free such as were
there?
A. It is most probable he did according
to 1 Pet. iii. 19, 20. 'Christ being dead,
came in spirit; and preached to them
also that were in prison, who had been
incredulous in the days of Noah, when
the ark was building.'
8
Q. 102. What understand you by,
on the third day he rose again
from the dead?
A. I understand, when Christ had been
dead part of three days, on the third day,
which was Sunday, he raised up his
blessed body from the dead.
Q. 103. Why did he not raise it
again sooner?
A. To testify that he was truly dead, and
to fulfil the prophecies.
Q. 104. Did he reassume all the
parts of his body?
A. He did, even to the last drop of his
vital blood, and the very scattered hairs
of his head.
Q. 105. Why did he retain the
stigmas and marks of the sacred
wounds?
A. To confound the incredulity of men,
and to present them often to his Father,
as a propitiation of our sins.
Q. 106. What benefit have we by
the resurrection?
A. It confirms our faith and hope, that
we shall rise again from death: 'For he
who raised up Jesus will raise us also
with Jesus.' 2 Cor. iv. 14.
The Sixth Article
Q. 107. WHAT is the sixth article?
A. He ascended into heaven, sits on the
right hand of God the Father Almighty.
Q. 108. What means, He ascended
into heaven?
A. It means that when Christ had
conversed forty days on earth with his
disciples, after his resurrection, teaching
them heavenly things, then he ascended
triumphant into heaven, by his own
power.
Q. 109. From what place did he
ascend?
A. From the top of the Mount of Olivet,
where the print of his blessed feet are
seen to this day.
Q. 110. Why from thence?
A. That were he began to be humbled by
his passion, there he might also begin to
be exalted.
Q. 111. Before whom did he
ascend?
A. Before his mother, apostles and
disciples, Acts 1. 9, &c.
Q. 112. In what manner did he
ascend?
A. Lifting up his hands, and blessing
them.
Q. 113. Why is it added, Into
Heaven?
A. To draw our hearts to heaven after
Him; 'If ye have risen with Christ, seek
ye the things which are above.' Col. iii. 1.
Q. 114. What understand you by,
Sits at the right hand of God?
A. I do not understand, that God the
Father hath any hands, for he is
incorporated, and a spirit: but that
Christ is equal to his Father in power
and majesty, as he is God; and that as
man he is the highest created glory.
The Seventh Article
Q. 115. WHAT is the seventh
article?
A. From thence he will come to judge the
living and the dead.
9
Q. 116. What understand you by
this article?
A. I understand Christ will come at the
last day from heaven, to judge all men
according to their work.
Q. 117. Does every man receive a
particular judgment at his death?
A. He doth, but in the general judgment
we shall be judged not only in our souls,
as at our death, but also in our bodies.
Q. 118. Why is that necessary?
A. That as Christ was openly rejected, so
he may there be openly acknowledged to
the great joy and glory of his friends, as
also to the confusion of his enemies.
Q. 119. How prove you that in the
judgment all men shall receive
according to their works?
A. Out of 2 Cor. v. 10. 'We must all be
manifested (saith St. Paul) before the
judgment seat of Christ, that every one
may receive the proper things of the
body according as he hath done,
whether good or evil.' And out of St.
Matt. xvi. 27. 'The Son of man (saith out
Lord) shall come in the glory of his
Father, with his angels, and then he will
render to every one according to his
works.'
Q. 120. Is there any merit in our
good works?
A. There is, according to Apoc. xxii. 12.
Behold I come quickly (saith the Lord)
and my reward is with me; to render to
every man according to his works.'
Q. 121. In what place shall this
judgment be made?
A. In the Valley of Jehosaphat, as many
suppose between Jerusalem and Mount
of Olivet.
Q. 122. How prove you this?
A. By its conformity to that of the
prophet. I will gather together all
nations, I will send them into the Valley
of Jehosaphat, and there will I plead
with them upon my people, and my
inheritance Israel,' Joel iii.
Q. 123. What signs shall go before
it?
A. The sun and moon shall lose their
lights, there shall be wars, plagues,
famines, and earthquakes, in many
places.
Q. 124. In what manner will Christ
come unto it?
A. In great power and majesty, attended
with legions of angels.
Q. 125. Who are they that shall be
judged?
A. The whole race and progeny of man.
Q. 126. What are the things that
shall be judged?
A. Our thoughts, words, and works, even
to the secrets of our souls.
Q. 127. Who will accuse us?
A. The Devils, and our own guilty
consciences: in which all our thoughts,
words and deeds shall presently appear,
and be laid open to the whole world.
Q. 128. How shall the just and
reprobate be placed?
A. The just shall be on the right; the
reprobate on the left hand of the Judge.
Q. 129. What shall be the sentence
of the just?
A. 'Come, O ye blessed of my Father, and
receive ye the kingdom which is
prepared for you, for I was hungry and
10
ye gave me to eat, I was thirsty, and ye
gave me to drink,' &c St. Matt. xxv. 35,
36.
Q. 130. What shall be the sentence
of the reprobate?
A. 'Go ye cursed into eternal fire, which
hath been prepared for the devil and his
angels; for I was hungry, and ye gave me
not to eat,' &c. the same chap. v. 41, 42.
You see of what weight good works will
be at that day.
Q. 131. Why is it added, the living
and the dead?
A. To signify that Christ shall judge, not
only such as are living at the time of his
coming, but likewise all such as have
been dead, from the creation of the
world; as also by the living, are
understood angels and saints, by the
dead, devils and damned souls.
The Eighth Article
Q. 132. WHAT is the eight article?
A. I believe in the Holy Ghost.
Q. 133. Of what treats this article?
A. Of the third Person of the blessed
Trinity, in whom we also believe and put
our trust, who proceeds from the Father
and the Son, and is the self-same God
with them, distinct in nothing but in
person.
Q. 134. How prove you that?
A. Out of 1 John v. 7. 'There are three
that give testimony in heaven, the
Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost,
and these three are one.'
Q. 135. Why is the name of the
Holy Ghost appropriated to the
third Person, since angels are all
spirits and holy?
A. Because he is such by excellency and
essence, they only by participation.
Q. 136. At least why should it not
be common to the other two
persons?
A. Because they are known by the proper
names of Father and Son, but we have
not any proper name for the Holy Ghost.
Q. 137. In what forms has the Holy
Ghost appeared unto man?
A. In the form of a dove, to signify the
purity and innocence which he caused in
our souls; and in the form of a bright
cloud, and fiery tongue, to signify the
fire of charity, which he produced in our
hearts, as also the gift of tongues; and
hence it is, he is painted in these forms.
The Ninth Article
Q. 138. WHAT is the ninth article?
A. I believe in the holy Catholic Church,
the communion of saints.
Q. 139. What understand you by
this?
A. I understand that Christ hath a
church upon earth which he established
in his own blood, and that he hath
commanded us to believe that church, in
all things appertaining to faith, and
morals, Matt, xviii. 17.
Q. 140. What kind of faith must we
believe her with?
A. With the same faith that we believe
her Spouse the Son of God, that is, with
divine faith, but with this difference
among other, that we believe in God; but
though we believe the church, yet we do
not properly believe in the church.
Q. 141. What is the church?
11
A. It is the congregation of all the
faithful under Jesus Christ, their
invisible head, and his vicar upon earth,
the Pope.
Q. 142. What are the essential
parts of the church?
A. A Pope or supreme head, bishops,
pastors, and laity.
Q. 143. How prove you that
bishops are of divine institution?
A. Out of Acts xx. 28. Take heed unto
yourselves, and to the whole flock,
wherein the Holy Ghost hath placed you
bishops, to rule the church of God,
which he hath purchased with his own
blood.
Q. 144. How believe you St. Peter,
and the Pope his successor, to be
the visible head of the church?
A. First out of St. John xxi. 16, 17, and
18, where Christ gave St. Peter (for a
reward of his special faith and love)
absolute power to feed and govern his
whole flock, saying, Feed my Lambs,
feed my lambs, feed my sheep; therefore
the rest of the apostles were his sheep,
and he their head or pastor.
Secondly, out of St. Matt. xvi. 18, where
Christ saith, Thou art Peter, and upon
this Rock will I build my church.
Therefore the rest of the apostles were
built on him; and hence also it is, that in
Scripture, St. Peter is still named first.
Q. 145. What are the marks of the
true church?
A. Unity, sanctity, universality, and to be
apostolical.
Q. 146. What mean you by the
church's unity?
A. That all her members live under one
evangelical law, obey the same supreme
head, and his magistrates profess the
same faith, even to the last article, and
use the same sacraments and sacrifices.
Q. 147. How prove you out of
Scripture that the church is one?
A. 1 Cor. x. 17. Being many (saith St.
Paul) we are one bread, one body, all
who participate of one bread.
Q. 148. Why may not a well-
meaning person be saved in any
religion?
A. Because there is but one Lord, one
faith, one baptism, Ephes. iv. 5, and
without (that one) faith, it is impossible
to please God. Heb. xi. 6.
Q. 149. What other reason have
you for it?
A. Because, as in a natural body, that
part which has not a due connection to
the heart or root, presently dies for want
of continuity; so in the church (the
mystical body of Christ) that man who
has not a due subordination and
connection to the head and common
councils thereof, (that is, the Pope and
general councils from whence under
Christ we have our spiritual life and
motion, as we are Christians,) must
needs be dead, nor indeed
can he be accounted a member of that
mystical body.
Q. 150. Who, I beseech you, are
those who are not to be accounted
members of the Church?
A. All such as are not in the unity of the
church, by a most firm belief of her
doctrine, and due obedience to her
pastors; as Jews, Turks, Heretics, &c.
Q. 151. Why may not Heretics and
Schismatics justly claim to be in
12
the Unity of the Church and
Members of Christ's body?
A. Because Catholics can show to each
sect of Heretics and Schismatics the
time they began; the date of their
separation from the Church: the name of
the person or persons of their sect who
first separated themselves, and the
cause of their condemnation; whilst the
Catholic Church always was from the
beginning.
Q. 152. What if a Protestant should
tell you, that the difference
between them and us, are not
differences in fundamentals, or in
faith, but in opinion only, and
therefore do not exclude them out
of unity of the Catholic Church?
A. I should answer, they contradict
themselves; for they accuse us of
robbing God of his honour, in holding
priestly absolutions from sins; in
adoring Christ's body and blood, as
really present in the eucharist, and
holding the Pope's supremacy in things
belonging to the spiritual government of
the Church, also the infallibility of the
Church and general councils, in
delivering and defining points of faith,
which are no matters of indifference, but
high fundamentals.
Q. 153. How do you prove all
obstinate Innovators to be
Heretics?
A. Because they wilfully stand out
against the definitive sentence of the
Church of God, and submit not to any
tribunal appointed by Christ to decide
religious controversies; but follow their
own interpretation of the dead letter of
the scriptures.
Q. 154. And is not this the reason
also why Protestants and all other
sectarians are so divided in
religious matters?
A. Yes, it is; for how is it possible that
people who imagine that there is no
person or tribunal, or even the Church
of God, infallible, for expounding the
bible; people, who expound it each
according to his respective fancy;
people, who have no control over the
erroneous interpretation of each other;
how it is possible that such people would
have the unity of faith, in the bond of
peace; or that they be not tossed to and
fro, and carried about with every wind of
doctrine?
Q. 155. Why may not the letter of
the Scripture be a decisive judge of
controversies?
A. Because it has never been able from
it[s] first publication, to decide any one
dispute; as the whole world knows from
experience: all heretics equally pretend
to scripture authority in defence of their
errors and heresies.
Q. 156. How then can we ascertain
the truth amidst conflicting
opinions?
A. By the infallible authority, definition,
and proposition of the Catholic Church.
Q. 157. For what end, then, was the
Scripture written, if not to be a
decider of controversies?
A. The writing of the Holy Scriptures
was for the purpose of the better
preserving the revealed will of God, and
that by a sensible and common reading
of it, without any critical or controversial
disputes of words, we might be able to
know that God is, and what he is, and
also that there is a heaven and a hell,
rewards for virtue and punishment for
vice, with examples of both, all which we
13
find in the letter of the Scripture, by a
plain and ordinary reading.
Q. 158. Is the church we speak of
visible?
A. She is and must be visible at all times,
as consisting of a hierarchy of pastors,
governing, teaching, administering
sacraments to the world's end, and of
other people governed, taught and
receiving sacraments at their hands, all
publicly professing the same faith, all
which things are visible.
Q. 159. How prove you that?
A. First, out of Eph. iv. 1, and 12. 'Christ
gave some apostles, some evangelists,
some doctors, some pastors, to the
consummation of the saints, to the
edifying of the body of Christ, and to the
work of the ministry, until we all meet in
the unity of faith.'
Secondly, out of St. Matt. v. 14, where
Christ saith of his church, "You are the
light of the world, a city seated on a high
mountain cannot be hid."
Q. 160. Why then would the
Protestants have the church to be
invisible?
A. Because we have convinced them,
that there were no Protestants to be seen
or heard of in the world before Martin
Luther.
Q. 161. Why is the church said to
be holy, or to have sanctity?
A. Because she hath a holy faith, a holy
law, holy sacraments, and is guided by
the Holy Ghost, to all truth and holiness.
Q. 162. How else prove you her
sanctity?
A. Because Christ gave himself for his
church that he might sanctify her,
cleansing her by the laver of water in the
world, that he might present her to
himself a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle, but that she might be
holy and unspotted. Eph. v. 26, 27.
Q. 163. Notwithstanding the
sanctity of the Catholic Church,
are not some Catholics as wicked
as Protestants?
A. Yes, verily, and more wicked, for
where sanctity is less, their sacrilege
cannot be so great. No man could damn
his own posterity, but he that had
original justice to lose: nor any man to
betray Christ, but he that had eaten at
his table. Protestants have not a holy
faith, such sacraments, nor a holy
church to abuse, as Catholics have, and
therefore no wonder, if some Catholics
be worse than any Protestants; yet
Catholics have some saints, but
Protestants have none.
Q. 164. Is the church infallible?
A. She is, and therefore to be believed,
and all men may rest securely on her
judgment.
Q. 165. How prove you that?
A. First, because she is the pillar and
ground of truth 1 Tim. iii. 15.
Secondly, out of St. Matt. xvi. 18, where
Christ saith, "Upon this Rock will I build
my church, and the gates of hell shall
not prevail against her."
Thirdly, out of St. John, xiv. 26. But the
Paraclete, (saith he,) the Holy Ghost,
shall teach you all things whatsoever I
shall say to you. And xvi. 13. But when
the Spirit of truth cometh, he shall teach
you all truth.
Q. 166. How declare you that the
definitions of a council perfectly
ecumenical, that is, a general
14
council approved by the Pope, are
infallible in matters of faith?
A. Because such a council is the church
representative, and has the same
infallibility that the church spread over
the world hath.
Q. 167. What other reason have
you?
A. Because of the definitions of such a
council are the dictates of the Holy
Ghost, according to that of the apostles,
deciding in council, it hath seemed good
to the Holy Ghost, and to us, Acts xv. 28.
Q. 168. What think you then of
such as accuse the church of
errors in faith and idolatry?
A. Truly I think them to be Heretics or
Infidels, for our Lord saith, He that will
not hear the church let him be unto thee
as a heathen and a publican, St. Matt,
xviii. 17.
Q. 169. Is not the church at least
too severe in its censures and
excommunications against
sectaries?
A. No, she is very reasonable and
charitable in them for vicious,
passionate, and self-interested men
some times are brought to reason for
fear of punishment and are forced to
their own good, when no authority
ordained by Christ is able to persuade
them to it.
Q. 170. What understood you by
the word catholic, or by the
universality of the church?
A. I understand the church is universal,
both for time and place.
Q. 171. How for time?
A. Because she hath been from Christ to
this time, and shall be from thence to
the end of the world.
Q. 172. How prove you that?
A. Out of St. Matt, xxviii. 20. Going
therefore (saith our Lord) teach ye all
nations, &c. and behold I am with you
all days, even to the consummation of
the world.
Q. 173. What mean you by the
universality of place?
A. First, out of St. Matt, above cited,
Teach all nations.
Secondly out of Psalm lxxxv. 9. All
Nations, whatsoever thou hast made,
shall come and adore before thee, O
Lord.
Thirdly, out of Apoc. vii. 9, where we
read, that the church shall be gathered
out of all nations, people, tribes, and
tongues.
Q. 174. Why do we call the church
the Roman Church?
A. Because, since the transition of St.
Peter's chair from Antioch to Rome, the
particular Roman Church has been head
of all the churches, and to her the
primacy has been affixed.
Q. 175. What is the rule by which
the church preserves entire the
deposit of Faith and confounds all
sectaries?
A. Apostolical traditions, or receipt of
doctrine by hand to hand from Christ
and his apostles.
Q. 176. How prove you that?
A. Out of Rom. vi. 17. "Therefore I
beseech you, brethren (saith St. Paul)
mark them which make dissensions and
scandals, contrary to the doctrine which
15
you have learned, and avoid them, for
such do not serve Christ our Lord."
Q. 177. What other proofs have
you?
A. Out of St. Paul, saying, "But although
we or an angel from heaven evangelize
to you, besides that which we have
evangelized to you, be he anathema, or
besides, what you have received be he
anathema." Gal. i. 8, 9.
Q. 178. Can the church err in faith,
standing to this rule, and
admitting nothing for faith, but
what is consented by the whole
church to have been so received?
A. She cannot, otherwise the whole
church must there conspire in a
notorious he, to damn herself and her
posterity, or else she must be ignorant
what hath been taught for her faith by
the church of the precedent age, which
are both natural impossibilities.
Q. 179. How prove you these to be
impossibilities by nature?
A. By the constancy and immutability of
contingent causes, whose particulars
may be defective, but the universals
cannot.
Q. 180. Explain that a little.
A. Because one man or two or three may
be born but with one arm, or one eye
only, through defect of their particular
causes; but that all nature should fail at
once, and all men be so born, is totally
impossible in nature; in like manner,
one man or two may conspire in
palpable lies to damn themselves and
their posterity, or be deceived in what
hath been taught them for faith, from
their very cradles; but that the whole
church should so far break with the
nature of man (which is reason) to
conspire in such a lie, or to be so
mistaken, is as impossible in nature, as
it is for men to be no men.
Q. 181. May some errors have been
received for faith, and crept
insensibly over the whole church,
no man perceiving or taking notice
of them?
A. No, that is as impossible as that the
plague or burning fever should infect or
spread itself over a whole kingdom for
many years, no man perceiving it, or
seeking to prevent it; for nothing causes
greater notice to be taken, than any
public or notorious change in matters of
religion.
Q. 182. May not the power of
temporal princes, or the over
prevalency of human wit and
reason, have introduced errors
into the church?
A. Neither is that possible, seeing we are
not regulated in things which are of
faith, either by power, or any strength of
reason, but by the rule of apostolical
tradition, and by inquiring of the whole
church of every age, what hath been
taught by our forefathers, from Christ
and his apostles.
Q. 183. Was not the Millenary
heresy an apostolical tradition?
A. No, it was not; for there is no
assurance or consent among those who
write of it, that it was ever preached or
delivered by the apostles.
Q. 184. Did not St. Austin and
Innocentius, with their councils,
hold the communion of children a
thing necessary to their salvation?
A. They speak not of sacramental
communion, as is evident to all who
have read their works, but of the effect
16
of it, that is, of their incorporation into
the mystical body of Christ, which is
made in baptism, and this only they
affirmed to be necessary to their
salvation.
Q. 185. At least do not heretics say
and aver, that the church hath
apostatized and erred in faith?
A. They do indeed, but it will not serve
their turn barely to say it, unless they
were also able to prove it, (which they
neither are or will be) by evident and
undeniable proofs.
Q. 186. How prove you that?
A. First, because that presumption and
possession of her integrity and
infallibility is on the church's side; and
therefore ought not to be yielded up,
without clear evidence of her
prevarication.
Secondly, because he that accuses his
neighbour's wife of adultery, without
convincing proof thereof, is not to be
hearkened unto, but to be hated by all
good men, as a most infamous
slanderer; much more ought they who
shall accuse the church, the spouse of
Christ, of errors and apostasy, unless
their proofs be evident and undeniable,
to be detested as blasphemous heretics.
Thirdly, because if less than manifest
and convincing evidence be sufficient to
prove matters of this high nature, it is
not impossible but every false tongue
shall set dissensions between man and
wife, and stir up the most faithful
subjects in the world to a rebellion
against their princes, both spiritual and
temporal.
Q. 187. What other reason have
you yet, why the church and law of
Christ may not fail and be utterly
extinguished?
A. Because the causes of religion (to wit,
the hope of good, and fear of evil from
God) are universal and necessary,
always knocking at men's hearts, and
putting them in mind of some good or
other, and therefore must needs have
perpetual and necessary effects, which
in such as are convinced that Christ is
God, can be no other than the faith,
hope and love of Christ, and the
observance of his law, and that for ever,
speaking of the whole church, although
particular men may err and fall away.
Q. 188. What is it for the church to
be apostolical?
A. To have been begun and propagated
by the apostles, and to have a succession
of pastors, and doctrines from them.
Q. 189. What means the
communion of saints?
A. It means first that the faithful do all
communicate in the same faith and
sacraments, in the same sacrifice, and
also in the merits of one another.
Q. 190. How prove you that?
A. Out of 1 Cor. xii. 26. And if one
member suffer any thing, all the
members suffer with it; or if one
member do glory, all the members
rejoice with it, you are the body of
Christ, and members of a member.
Secondly, It means that the faithful on
earth communicate with the angels and
the saints in heaven; we by praising and
praying to them, they by praying for us.
Q. 191. How do you prove this
communion?
A. Out of Luke xv. 10. There is joy before
the angels of God upon one sinner that
doth penance. And out of 1 John i. 3,
That you also may have fellowship with
17
us, and our fellowship may be with the
Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.
Q. 192. How prove you that the
saints have any power to do us
good?
A. Out of Apoc. ii. 26, 27, where Christ
hath promised them power over us: to
him, said he, that shall overcome, and
keep my works to the end, to him will I
give power over nations, and he shall
rule them with an iron rod.
Q. 193. How prove you that it is
lawful to pray to angels?
A. Out of Apoc. i. 4, where St. John did
it: Grace (saith he) to you, and peace
from him that is, that was, and that shall
come, and from the seven spirits that are
in the sight of his throne.
Q. 194. What other proof have
you?
A. Out of Apoc. viii. 4, where we read,
that they present the church's prayers to
God. The smoke of the incense of the
prayers of the saints ascend from the
hand of the angel before God.
Q. 195. How prove you that we may
pray to saints?
A. Out of Gen. xlvii, 16, where Jacob
taught his children to do it, saying, And
let my name be invocated upon them,
the names also of my fathers, Abraham
and Isaac. How prove you that they pray
for us?
A. Out of Apoc. v. 8. The twenty-four
elders fell down before the Lamb, having
every one harps, and vials full of odours,
which are the prayers of the saints.
Q. 196. Is it no dishonour to God,
for us to pray to saints to pray for
us?
A. No, it is not, nor yet to beg it of men;
for St. Paul did it: We hope (saith he)
that God will deliver us, you also helping
in prayer for us. 2 Cor. i. 11.
The Tenth Article
Q. 197. WHAT is the tenth article?
A. The forgiveness of sins.
Q. 198. What do you understand by
this?
A. I understand that God is both able
and willing to forgive our sins, if we be
heartily sorry for them, and confess
them; and have given power to his
church to remit them by baptism and
penance.
Q. 199. How prove you that?
A. Out of Matt. ix. 8, where it is recorded
by the Holy Ghost, that the multitude
glorified God, who hath given such
power unto man, as to forgive sins,
(Christ having before proved the said
power by a miracle) ver. 6, 7.
Q. 200. Is any sin so great that God
cannot forgive it?
A. No there is not; for his mercy is far
above our malice.
Q. 201. Can any one mortal sin be
remitted without the rest?
A. It cannot, because the remission of
mortal sin is a renewing of friendship
with God by his grace, which can never
be effected, so long as there remains in
us any mortal sin.
Q. 202. Can we have absolute
certainty, that our sins are
forgiven us?
A. Without special revelation we cannot:
I am not guilty in conscience (saith St.
18
Paul) of any thing, but herein I am not
justified, l Cor. iv. 4.
Q. 203. What other proof have
you?
A. Because a man knows not whether he
be worthy of love or hatred. Eccl. i. 9.
Q. 204. Can we be certain of our
final perseverance?
A. Not without special revelation, and
therefore St. Paul said, I chastise my
body and bring it into subjection, lest
when I preach to others I myself become
a reprobate, 1 Cor. ix. 27, and Phil. ii. 12.
He exhorts, saying, with fear and
trembling, work out your salvation.
Q. 205. How then shall we have
peace of conscience?
A. Because we may have moral certainty
and a most lively hope, that our sins are
forgiven by us by the due use of the
sacraments, which is enough for our
peace.
The Eleventh Article
Q. 206. WHAT is the eleventh
article?
A. The resurrection of the flesh.
Q. 207. What means this article?
A. It means that these very bodies in
which we now live, shall at the day of
judgment be all raised up from death to
life.
Q. 208. By what means shall this
be done?
A. By the omnipotent command of God,
and the ministry of angels.
Q. 209. How prove you that?
A. Out of 1 Thess. iv. 16. For our Lord in
commandment, and in the voice of an
archangel, and in the trumpet of God,
will descend from heaven, and the dead
that are in Christ shall rise again.
Q. 210. Shall the same bodies rise
again?
A. The same in substance, though
different in qualities.
Q. 211. How prove you that?
A. Out of Job xix. 25, 26, 27. For I know
that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last
day I shall rise out of the earth, and shall
be compassed again with my skin, and
in my flesh I shall see God, whom I
myself shall see, and mine eyes shall
behold, and not another.
Q. 212. What shall be the qualities
or doweries of a glorified body?
A. Impassability, agility, clarity,
subtility.
Q. 213. How do you prove its
impassability, or incorruptibility?
A. Out of 1 Cor. xv. 53. For this
corruptible must put on incorruption,
and this mortal must put on
immortality.
Q. 214. How prove you its agility?
A. Out of the same chapter, ver. 43, 44.
It is sown in infirmity, it shall rise in
power; it is sown a natural body, but it
shall rise in a spiritual body, (that is, in
motion, and some operations equal to a
spirit;) which also proves its subtility.
Q. 215. How prove you it clarity?
A. Out of the same chapter, ver. 24 "For
star (said he) differs from star in glory,
so also the resurrection of the dead."
And ver. 43. "It is sown in dishonour, it
shall rise in glory."
19
Q. 216. In what space of time shall
the dead rise, and the elect be thus
changed?
A. "In a moment, in the twinkling of an
eye," 1 Cor. xv, 52.
Q. 217. At what age and stature
shall men rise?
A. At a perfect age, which is thirty-three,
and in that stature which they should
have had at a perfect age, without
deformity by defect or excess.
Q. 218. How prove you this?
A. Out of Ephes. iv. 13. "The church shall
last until we all meet into a perfect may,
into the measure of the age of the
fulness of Christ."
Q. 219. What example have you in
nature for the resurrection?
A. A grain of corn, which first rots in the
earth and then springs up and lives
again.
Q. 220. What benefit have we by
the knowledge of the resurrection?
A. It emboldens us to suffer persecution
and death itself, in hope of future glory,
according to that of St. Paul: "For
sufferings of these times are not
comparable to that of future glory,
which be revealed in us:" Rom. viii. 18.
The Twelfth Article
Q. 221. WHAT is the twelfth
article?
A. And life everlasting.
Q. 222. Why is this the last article?
A. Because everlasting life is the last end
of man, and the last reward we expect by
faith.
Q. 223. What understand you by
this article?
A. I understand that such as keep the
commandments, and die in the state of
grace, shall live with God in bliss
forever.
Q. 224. How prove you that
keeping the commandments is of
necessity for obtaining it?
A. Out of Matt. xix. 17, where Christ said
to the young man, asking what he
should do to obtain it, "If thou wilt enter
into life, keep the commandments."
Q. 225. Is everlasting life given as a
reward of our good works?
A. It is, according to Rom. ii. 6, 7. "God
will render to every one according to his
works, to them truly, that according to
patience in good works, seek glory and
honour, and incorruption life
everlasting" &c.
Q. 226. Were all men created for
everlasting life?
A. They were, for God "would have all
men to be saved," 1 Tim. ii. 4. "He
willeth not the death of any sinner, but
rather that he be converted and live."
Ezek. xxxiii. 11.
Q. 227. Why then are many
damned?
A. By reason of their own wilful
transgression of God's law, and final
impenitence.
Q. 228. How prove you that man is
the free cause of his own sin and
damnation?
A. First out of Job xi. 23. "God (saith he)
hath given him place for penance, but he
abuseth it unto pride."
20
Secondly, out of Hos. xiii. 9. "The
perdition is from thyself, O Israel; in me
only is thy aid."
Thirdly, out of Rom. ii. 4. "The benignity
of God calls thee to repentance, but thou
heapest to thyself wrath and
indignation, according to thy own
impenitent heart."
Q. 229. In what consists
everlasting life?
A. In the clear vision and fruition of
God, according to that of our Saviour, in
John xvii. 3. "This is the life everlasting,
that they know thee the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent."
Q. 230. Shall we see nothing in
Heaven but God?
A. Yes, all the attributes and perfections
of God, and in him also, as in a mirror or
looking glass, the nature and perfections
of all creatures; for he contains all things
in himself in the most eminent manner.
Q. 231. How prove you that?
A. Out of the apostle, saying, "from
whom all things by whom all things, and
in whom all things." Rom xi. 36.
Q. 232. What effect will follow out
the clear vision and fruition of
God?
A. A divine love, steadfast possession
and ineffable joy; and out of that praise,
jubilation, and thanksgiving for ever.
Q. 233. What means the word
Amen?
A. It means that the whole creed is
divine truth, and therefore we most
heartily assent to it.
Chapter 4.
Hope and Prayer Explained
Q. 234. WHAT is Hope?
A. It is a virtue infused by God into the
soul, by which we have a confident
expectation of glory to be obtained by
the grace and merits of Christ, and our
own merits proceeding from his grace.
Q. 235. On what is the confidence
chiefly grounded?
A. On the merits and promises of Christ,
who hath promised glory to such as
hope in him, and do his works, as also
grace whereby to do them.
Q. 236. Are our good works then
meritorious of a reward of glory?
A. As proceeding from the grace of
Christ, and built upon his promises, they
are.
Q. 237. How prove you that?
A. First, out of Mark ix. 14. "For
whosoever shall give you to drink a cup
of water in my name because you are
Christ's, Amen, I say to you, he shall not
lose his reward."
Secondly, out of 1 Cor. iii. 8. "And every
one shall receive his own reward,
according to his own labour, for we are
God's coadjutors."
21
Thirdly, out of Matt. v. n. "Blessed are
ye (saith our Lord) when they shall
revile and persecute you; for very great
is your reward in heaven."
Q. 238. Is it lawful for us to do
good works in the hope of a
reward?
A. Not only lawful but laudable,
according to that, I "have inclined by
heart, to do thy justifications for ever,
for a reward." Psalm cxviii. 12.
Q. 239. What other proof have
you?
A. Out of 1 John iii. 22. "Whatsoever
(saith he) we shall ask of God, we shall
receive of him, because we keep his
commandments, and do those things
that are pleasing before him."
Q. 240. How declare you the
necessity of hope?
A. Because it produces in us obedience
to the law of God, as also a willingness to
suffer for his sake, and final
perseverance.
Q. 241. How prove you that?
A. Out of Job xiii. 15. "Although he kill
me, yet will I hope in him." And Psalm
lv. 5. "In God have I hoped, I will not
fear what flesh can do unto me."
It is according to the Psalmist, "Him
that hopeth in our Lord, merely shall
encompass." Psalm xxxi. 10. And, "Our
Lord is well pleased in them that hope in
his mercy." Psalm cxlvi. 11.
Q. 242. What other good doth
Hope?
A. It moves us to devout and humble
prayer.
Q. 243. What is prayer?
A. It is the lifting up of the mind to God,
by which we beg for good things and to
be free from evils, or by which we bless
and praise God.
Q. 244. What are the conditions of
good prayer?
A. That it may be made with reverence,
attention, humility, and perseverance.
Q. 245. What vices are opposite to
hope?
A. Despair and presumption.
Q. 246. What is despair?
A. It is a diffidence in the mercy of God,
and merits of Christ, even to death.
Q. 247. What is presumption?
A. It is a foolish and desperate
confidence of salvation, without
endeavouring to live well or keep the
commandments.
Q. 248. How is the despair the
cause of sin?
A. Because despairing men are wont to
say, if I shall be damned, I shall be
damned, and so use no endeavour to do
good or avoid evil.
Q. 249. How is presumption the
cause of sin?
A. Because presumptuous men used to
say, God is merciful and will forgive our
sins, how great soever, and at what time
soever, we do penance; and out of this
take liberty to sin.
Q. 250. How must our hope be
balanced between these two
extremes?
A. By a filial fear, and an humble
distrust of our own works, as they are
ours.
22
Q. 251. Is prayer good against both
these?
A. It is, according to that of Luke xxii.
40, "pray ye that so ye may not fall into
temptation."
Q. 252. For what else availeth
prayer?
A. For the avoiding of evils and the
obtaining all benefits.
Q. 253. How prove you that?
A. Out of John xv 23. "Whatsoever (saith
our Saviour) ye shall ask my Father in
my name, he will give it you." And Luke
xi. 9. "Ask and it shall be given you," &c.
Q. 254. Is it lawful to pray in an
unknown tongue?
A. It is, "for he that speaks in a tongue
(unknown) speaks not to men but to
God." 1 Cor. xiv. 2. And a petition has
the same force if it be understood by
him that is petitioned, whether the
petitioner understood it or not.
Q. 255. What other proof have
you?
A. Out of the same chap. ver. 16, 17,
where Paul saith, "but if thou bless in
spirit, (that is in a tongue not known) he
that supplieth the place of the vulgar,
how shall he say Amen, &c. thou indeed
givest thanks well, but the other is not
edified." You see in itself the thing is
good, for he gives thanks well.
Q. 256. What means the apostle,
when he exhorts us to pray
always? Thess. v. 17.
A. He means we should daily spend
some time to prayer, according to James
v. 16. "Pray for one another that you may
be saved, for the continual prayer of a
just man availeth much."
Q. 257. Is it possible to pray
always?
A. In some sense it is: namely, by
offering up all our actions to God's
honour.
Q. 258. In what place is prayer
best?
A. In churches: because these are places
consecrated and devoted to prayer, and
there our prayers are elevated by the
peculiar presence of God, and his special
assistance besought by the Church's
pastors in the consecration of those
places.
Q. 259. How prove you that?
A. Out of Matt, xviii. 20. "Where there
are two or three gathered together in my
name (saith the Lord) there I am in the
midst of them."
Q. 260. How prove you that
material churches are of God's
appointment?
A. First, Because God commanded
Solomon to build him a temple, and
dedicate it to his service. 2 Paral vii. 12.
Secondly, out of Luke xix. 46, where
Christ calls the material temple his
house, casing the buyers and sellers out
of it. "My house, (saith he) is the house
of prayer, but you have made it a den of
thieves."
Thirdly, out of Luke xviii. 10, where the
publican "ascended to the temple to
pray, and descended into his house
justified."
Q. 261. How do you prove it lawful
to dedicate of consecrate material
temples?
A. Out of Paralip. above cited, chap. 7,
and out of John x. 22, where it is
recorded that Christ himself kept the
23
dedication of the temple in Jerusalem,
instituted by Judas Maccabseus, l Mac.
iv. 56, 59-
Q. 262. How do you prove it lawful
to adorn the churches with
tapestry, pictures, and the like?
A. Out of Mark, xiv. 15, where Christ
commanded his last supper to be
prepared in a great chamber adorned.
Q. 263. What proof have you for
the order and number of the
canonical hours?
A. For Matins, Lauds, and Prime, that of
Psalm v. 4 "Early in the morning will I
stand up to thee, early in the morning
wilt thou hear my voice."
Q. 264. What for the third, sixth
and ninth hours?
A. For the third out of Acts ii. 16. "At the
third hour the Holy Ghost descended on
the Apostles." For the sixth, out of Acts
x. 9. "Peter and John went up into the
higher part to pray about the sixth
hour:" and for the ninth, out of Acts iii.
1. "And at the ninth hour
Peter and John went up into the temple
to pray."
Q. 265. What for the Even-song
and Compline?
A. That of the Psalmist, "Morning and
evening, will I declare the works of our
Lord," Psalm liv. 18. and again, "lifting
up of my hands is as an evening
sacrifice," cxli 2.
Q. 266. Is it good to use outward
ceremonies in a time of prayer, as
kneeling, knocking the breast, and
such like?
A. It is, for they declare the inward
reverence and devotion of the heart; and
Christ himself prostrated, when he
prayed in the garden, Matt. xxvi. 39.
And the poor publican beat his breast,
and cast down his eyes in that prayer by
which he merited to descend justified,
Luke xviii. 13, 14.
Q. 267. Why is the morning so fit a
time for prayer?
A. To open the windows of the soul to
the light of divine grace and offer up the
works of the whole day to God's honour.
Q. 268. Why is the evening also?
A. To shut the windows of the soul
against the darkness of sin, and the
illusions of the devil; as also to render
thanks for all the benefits of the day
past.
Q. 269. What things ought we to
pray for?
A. For all good things both spiritual and
temporal, and to be freed from evil; for
so our Lord bath taught us by his prayer.
Chapter 5.
The Lord’s Prayer Expounded
Q. 270. WHAT is the Pater Noster?
A. It is the most holy prayer, that ever
was.
Q. 271. Who made it?
A. Christ our Lord, the eternal wisdom
of his Father, Matt. vi. 9.
24
Q. 272. Why did he make it?
A. To teach us a set form of prayer, and
how we ought to pray.
Q. 273. Why did he make it in so
short and plain a manner?
A. That all persons might be able to
understand and practise it.
Q. 274. What doth it contain?
A. All those chief things which we can
ask or hope for of God.
Q. 275. How many petitions does it
contain?
A. Seven.
Q. 276. What understand you by
these words, which are prefixed to
the petition, Our Father who art in
Heaven?
A. I understand that God is our Father,
both by creation and by adoption: and if
we be in the state of grace, we may
confidently come to him, and beg all
blessings of him.
Q. 277. How prove you that?
A. Out of 1 John iii. 1. "See what manner
of charity the Father hath given us, that
we should be named, and be the sons of
God."
Q. 278. Why do you say, our
Father, and not my Father?
A. Because God is the common Father of
all, and all good Christians must pray for
one another, according to the article in
the Creed. "I believe in the communion
of saints."
Q. 279. What understand you by
the words, Who art in heaven?
A. I understand that God who fills
heaven and earth, and is in all things,
times, and places, is in heaven in a
peculiar manner, declaring and
manifesting his glory to the blessed; and
therefore when we pray, we must lift up
our minds to him, and keep them fixed
upon heavenly things.
Q. 280. How prove you that?
A. Out of Jer. xlviii. 10. "Cursed be he
that doth the word of God negligently."
The First Petition
Q. 281. WHAT is the first petition?
A. Hallowed be thy name.
Q. 282. What do we beg by this?
A. That God may be known by the whole
world, and that he may be worthily
praised, served, and honoured by all his
creatures, which cannot be effected but
by his grace.
Q. 283. Who are these that say this
petition ill?
A. Such as dishonour the name of God
by blaspheming, swearing, lying,
cursing, and scurrilous disclosures.
The Second Petition
Q. 284. WHAT is the second
petition?
A. Thy kingdom come.
Q. 285. What do we beg of God by
this petition?
A. We beg, that our miseries and
afflictions in this life may be such, as
that we may be made partakers of his
joyful and heavenly kingdom hereafter.
Q. 286. What else do we beg?
That Christ may reign in us in this life by
grace, and in the next by glory,
presenting us a kingdom to his Father.
25
Q. 287. Who say this petition ill?
A. Such as are willing slaves to sin, and
to the devil.
The Third Petition
Q. 288. WHAT is the third
petition?
A. Thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven.
Q. 289. What do we beg by this?
A. That God would enable us by his holy
grace to keep his commandments, and
obey his will in all things.
Q. 290. What mean you by the
words, on earth as it is in heaven?
A. We beg by those, that we may be as
ready and willing to do the will of God
on earth, as the blessed saints and
angels are in heaven.
The Fourth Petition
Q. 291. WHAT is the fourth
petition?
A. Give us this day our daily bread.
Q. 292. What do we beg by this?
A. All food and nourishment for our
souls and bodies.
Q. 293. What is the food of the
soul?
A. The word of God, the holy
sacraments, especially the blessed
Eucharist, and divine grace.
Q. 294. How prove you, that by this
petition Christ intended the
blessed bread of the Eucharist?
A. Because in Matt. vi. 11, we read "our
supersubstantial bread."
Q. 295. Why is the Eucharist called
our daily bread?
A. Because it is daily offered for our sins
on the altar, and we ought daily to
receive it, at least in spirit and desire.
Q. 296. Who say this petition ill?
A. Such as are cold and careless in
coming to the sacraments, and in
hearing divine service, or exhortations;
and such as ascribe their temporal goods
and blessings to their own industry and
providence, and not to any special
bounty or gift of God.
The Fifth Petition
Q. 297. WHAT is the fifth petition?
A. And forgive us our debts, as we
forgive our debtors.
Q. 298. What do we beg by this
petition?
A. That God would pardon us the sins of
our life past, as also the punishments
which are due unto them.
Q. 299. Why are sins, and the
penalties of sin, called debts?
A. Because they make us debtors to the
justice of God, whom by sin we rob of
his due honour.
Q. 300. Why is it added, As we
forgive our debtors?
A. To signify that God will not forgive us,
unless we also forgive our brethren; "If
you will not forgive men, neither will
your Father forgive you your offences."
Matt. vi. 15.
Q. 301. Who say this petition ill?
A. Such as bear malice against their
neighbour, and seek revenge.
26
The Sixth Petition
Q. 302. WHAT is the sixth
petition?
A. And lead us not into temptation.
Q. 303* What do we beg by this?
A. That God would not permit us to be
tempted above our strength.
Q. 304. Doth God tempt any man
to sin?
A. No, "God is not a tempter of evils, he
tempts no man." James i. 13.
Q. 305. What other proof have
you?
A. Out of Ps. v. 7 "Thou art not a God
willing iniquity." And out of Rom. ix. 14.
"Is there iniquity with God? No, God
forbid."
Q. 306. By whom then are we
tempted?
A. By the devil, and our own
concupiscence.
Q. 307. Can a man live in this
world, and be free from all
temptations?
A. Morally speaking he cannot: "for the
whole life of man on earth is a warfare."
Job vii. 1.
Q. 308. Why then do we pray to be
delivered from temptation?
A. That we may not be overcome, or
vanquished by them.
Q. 309. Is temptation of itself a
sin?
A. No, not without consent on our part;
nay, it is a great occasion of merit, if we
resist it as we ought.
Q. 310. How prove you that?
A. First, out of Apoc. ii. 10, 11. "Be thou
faithful unto death (saith our Lord) and
I will give thee the crown of life: he that
overcometh, shall not be hurt by the
second death." Secondly, because Christ
himself, who never sinned, would be
tempted, "and the tempter came unto
him." &c. Matt. iv. 3.
Q. 311. Are we never overcome by
our own default?
A. Never, according to that answer
which was given to St. Paul, desiring to
be freed from a temptation "My grace is
sufficient for thee."
Q. 312. What other proof have
you?
A. Out of James iv. 7. "Resist the devil,
and he will flee from you."
Q. 313. Who are they that say this
petition ill?
A. Such as seek after occasion of sin, and
wilfully expose themselves unto
temptations.
Q. 314. What are the best remedies
against temptations?
A. To have recourse by humble prayer to
God and to his saints, and to such
especially as have undergone
temptations of the same kind; to resist
them valiantly at the first entrance, and
to remember often the four last things,
death, judgment, hell, and heaven.
The Seventh Petition
Q. 315. WHAT is the seventh
petition?
A. But deliver us from evil.
Q. 316. What do we beg by this
petition?
27
A. That God would deliver us from all
our evils both spiritual and temporal,
especially from the evils of sin past,
present, and to come.
Q. 317. Who is the author of the
evil sin?
A. The devil; for "Sin in God there is
none." 1 John iii. 5.
Q. 318. What other proof have
you?
A. Out of Wisdom xiv. 9. "Hateful to God
is the impious man and his impiety."
Q. 319. Who say this petition ill?
A. They who commit their evils before
God, and multiply their sins without
remorse.
Chapter 6.
The Hail Mary, or Angelical Salutation
Q. 320. WHAT is the Hail Mary?
A. It is a most honourable salutation to
the blessed Virgin Mary, and prayer to
her.
Q. 321. How do your prove it
lawful to honour her?
A. Out of Luke i. 48, where (by
inspirations from God; she prophesied,
saying, "All generations shall call me
blessed."
Q. 322. How may parts hath the
Hail Mary?
A. It hath three parts.
The First Part of the
Hail Mary
Q. 323. What is the first part?
A. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is
with thee.
Q. 324. Who made this part?
A. The Holy Ghost, though it was
delivered by the angel Gabriel, Luke i.
28.
Q. 325. What signifies the word
Hail?
A. It signifies, Rejoice or be glad, O
Mother of God.
Q. 326. Why do we invite her by
this prayer to rejoice?
A. Because it renews the memory of her
blessed Son's conception, which is an
infinite cause of joy to her and the whole
court of heaven.
Q. 327. What signifies the word
Mary?
A. It signifies star of the sea.
Q. 328. Why is she properly called
the star of the sea?
A. Because she shines on us by her
exemplary virtue in this sea of miseries,
like a most glorious star.
Q. 329. What mean you by the
words, full of grace?
A. I mean that the Blessed Virgin hath a
special fullness and prerogative of grace
for the conception of her Son.
Q. 330. What means, The Lord is
with thee?
28
A. It means that the whole Trinity was
with her at the time in a particular
manner.
Q. 331. How declare you that?
A. Because the Father was with her, as
with his Spouse, the Son as with his
Mother, the Holy Ghost was with her, as
with his choicest tabernacle.
Q. 332. Are they also now with
her?
A. They are in glory, and will be so for all
eternity.
The Second Part of the
Hail Mary
Q. 333* WHAT is the second part of
it?
A. Blessed art thou among women,
blessed is the fruit of thy womb, JESUS.
Q. 334. Who made this part?
A. These words, Blessed art thou among
women, were first delivered by the
angel; and after with the rest, uttered by
St. Elizabeth, being inspired by the Holy
Ghost. Luke i. 28, 42.
Q. 335. What understand you by
Blessed art thou among women?
A. I understand, she alone was chosen
out amongst all women to be the Mother
of God, and therefore ought to be
blessed and praised by all women.
Q. 336. Why by married women?
A. Because their children are made the
sons of God by the nativity and merits of
her Son, of whom she daily also begs
blessings for them.
Q. 337. Why by virgins?
A. Because she is their queen and
chiefest patroness, and obtains for them
of her Son Jesus, the gift of chastity.
Q. 338. Why by widows?
A. Because she is their best example,
and advocate to their Spouse, her Son.
Q. 339. What means, Blessed is the
fruit of thy womb, Jesus?
A. It means, that Jesus is her true and
natural Son, and in him she is the
author of all our blessings, and to be
blessed both by men and angels.
Q. 340. Why are Catholics such
great honourers of the name
Jesus.
A. Because it is a name above all names,
as you have heard in the creed; and as
St. Paul exhorts, saying "all whatsoever
you do in word or work, do all in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, giving
thanks to God the Father by him." Colos.
iii. 17.
The Third Part of the
Hail Mary
Q. 341. WHAT is the third part of
the Hail Mary?
A. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for
us sinners, now, and in the hour of our
death. Amen.
Q. 342. Who made this part?
A. The holy Catholic Church in the
Council of Ephesus, the year of our Lord
431, (Pope Celestine presiding,) against
Nestorius, the heretic, who denied our
blessed Lady to be the Mother of God,
and would only have her called the
Mother of Christ. See Baronius, tom. 5.
An. 4. 31.
29
Q. 343* What means, Pray for us
sinners now?
A. It means, that we need divine
assistance every moment.
Q. 344. What means, And at the
hour of our death?
A. It meaneth that we then especially
shall need the aid of the blessed Mary,
and her Son Jesus, and therefore do
daily beg it. The word Amen, signifies,
let it be done, or be it so.
Chapter 7.
Charity Expounded
Q. 345. WHAT is Charity?
A. It is the gift of God, or a supernatural
quality infused by God into the soul of
man, by which we love God above all
things, and our neighbours as ourselves,
for God's sake.
Q. 346. Why is it called
supernatural?
A. Because it is not in the power of
nature to obtain it, but by the special
grace and gift of God.
Q. 347. Is charity imputed as
protestants would have it, or is it a
quality truly inherent in the soul.
A. It is truly inherent in the soul, as
wisdom is inherent in a soul that is wise,
and love in a soul that loves.
Q. 348. How prove you that?
A. First out of Rom. v. 5. "The charity of
God which is poured forth in our hearts,
by the Holy Ghost, which is given us."
Secondly, out of Dan. vi, 22, "Before him
(i.e. God) justice have been found in
me."
Thirdly, out of Ephes. iii. 17, 18, where
St. Paul prays for his brethren, "That
Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts:
that, being rooted and founded in
charity, you may be able to comprehend,
with all the saints, what is the breadth,
and length, and height, and depth."
Q. 349. What is it to love God
above all things?
A. To be willing to lose all things, rather
than the grace or love of God by mortal
sin.
Q. 350. Who has this love?
A. They who keep the commandments of
God, according to that, "This is the
charity of God, that we keep his
commandments; and his
commandments are not heavy." 1 John
v. 3-
Q. 351. Hath not he charity then,
that breaks any of the
commandments?
A. He hath not; for "he that saith, he
knoweth God, and doth not keep his
commandments, is a liar, and the truth
is not in him." 1 John ii. 4.
30
Q. 352. What is it to love our
neighbours as ourselves?
A. To wish him as much good as we wish
ourselves, and to do him no wrong.
Q. 353* Who is our neighbour?
A. All men, women, and children, even
those who injure us, or differ from us in
religion, but especially Catholics.
Q. 354. Why so?
A. Because they are the images of God,
and redeemed with the blood of Christ.
Q. 355. Why especially Catholics?
A. Because they are all members of the
mystical body of Christ, which is the
church.
Q. 356. Whence ariseth the
obligations of loving our
neighbour?
A. Because God hath commanded it: and
'if one shall say I love God, and hateth
his brother, he is a liar.' 1 John, iv. 20.
Q. 357. Are we not also bound to
love our enemies?
A. We are, according to that, "It was said
of old, Thou shalt not kill: but I say unto
you, Love your enemies." Matt. v. 43, 44.
Q. 358. What kind of love are we
bound to show to our enemies?
A. We are bound to use a civil behaviour
towards them, to pray for them in
general, and to be disposed to do any
charitable office for them when their
necessity require it.
Q. 359. What is the highest act of
charity?
A. To give our life for God's honour, and
the salvation of our neighbour.
Q. 360. Why is charity the greatest
and most excellent of virtues?
A. Because it is the life of all the rest.
"Faith without charity is dead." James ii.
26.
Q. 361. What state of life do we
conceive to be of greatest
perfection.
A. That which of its own nature and
proper institution obligeth to the highest
and greatest charity, for charity is
perfection, and such is the state not only
of bishops, but also, as many probably
think, of pastors who have the charge of
souls.
Q. 362. How prove you that?
A. Out of 1 John xv. 13; "Greater charity
than this no man hath, that a man yield
his life for his friends," which is the
proper obligation of every parish priest,
according to that, "The good pastor
giveth his life for his sheep." John x. 12.
Q. 363. How prove you the
necessity of charity?
A. Out of John iv. 16. "He that remains
in charity, remains in God, and God in
him," and chap. iii. ver 14, "He that loves
not, remains in death."
Q. 364. What are the effects of
charity?
A. It destroys sin. "Charity covers a
multitude of sins," James v. 20, and
gives spiritual life to the soul. "In this we
know that we are translated from death
to life, because we love the brethren." 1
John iii. 14.
31
Chapter 8.
Of the Commandments in general
Q. 365. WHAT is the principal aim
or end of the commandments?
A. To teach us the will and pleasure of
the eternal God, or the love of God, and
our neighbour. "He that loveth his
neighbour hath fulfilled the law." Rom.
xiii. 8.
Q. 366. Why are the
commandments (excepting the
determination of the sabbath day)
called the commandments of the
law of nature?
A. Because God wrote them in the heart
of men at the creation, being the very
dictates of natural reason.
Q. 367. When did he renew them
in the written law?
A. When he gave them to Moses on
mount Sinai, in thunder and lightening,
written in two tables of stone Exod. xx.
Q. 368. Why in thunder and
lightening?
A. To move us to a careful observance of
them.
Q. 369. Are all men bound to know
the commandments?
A. For the substance of them they are,
because they are the rule of our whole
life and actions.
Q. 370. How do you prove them to
be only ten?
A. Out of Deut. iv. 13, "He shewed his
covenant which he commanded you to
do, and the ten words which be wrote in
two tables of stone."
Q. 371. By what kind of sins are the
commandments broken?
A. By mortal sins only; for venial sins
are not strictly speaking contrary to the
end of the commandments, which is
charity.
Q. 372. How declare you that?
A. Because a venial sin, for example, a
vain word, an officious or jesting lie,
which hurts nobody, the theft of a pin or
an apple, is not of weight enough to
break charity between man and man,
much less between God and man.
Q. 373* Is it possible for us to keep
all the commandments?
A. Not only possible, but necessary and
easy, by the assistance of God's grace.
Q. 374. How do you prove that?
A. Because God is not a tyrant to
command impossibilities under pain of
eternal damnation, as he doth the
keeping his commandments.
Q. 375. How prove you that?
A. First out of Exod. xx. and Deut. xxviii.
15. where he often commands them to
be kept, threatening grievous
punishments to such as break them.
Secondly, out of Matt. v. 19.
"Whosoever, therefore, shall break one
of these least commandments, and shall
teach men so, he shall be called the least
in the kingdom of heaven: but
whosoever shall do and teach the same
shall be called great in the kingdom of
heaven."
32
Thirdly, out of Matt. xi. 29, 30. "Take up
my yoke upon you (saith the Lord) for
my yoke is sweet, and my burden light."
And again, 1 John v. 3. "His
commandments are not heavy."
Q. 376. Hath God ever promised to
enable man to keep them?
A. He hath, and also actually to make
them keep and do them.
Q. 377. How prove you that?
A. Out of Ezek. xxxvi. 27. "I will put my
spirit in the middle of you, (said our
Lord) and I will make ye walk in my
precepts, and keep my judgments and
do them." And again, chap, xxxvii. 23,
24. "They shall be my people, and I will
be their God, there shall be one pastor of
them all, and they shall walk in my
judgments and keep my commandments
and do them.
Q. 378. How do you prove that any
have kept them?
A. Out of Luke i. 6. "Zachary and
Elizabeth were both just before God:
walking in all the commandments and
justifications of our Lord without
reproof.
Q. 379. How prove you the keeping
of them to be necessary to
salvation?
A. First, out of Matt. xix. 17. "If thou wilt
enter into life (saith our Lord) keep the
commandments. "
Secondly, out of Luke x. 25, 28, where
the lawyer had asked, what he should do
to possess everlasting life, and had
repeated the sum of the
commandments: Christ answered him
saying, "Do this, and thou shalt live."
Thirdly, out of Rom. ii. 13, "Not hearers
of the law are just with God, but the
doers of the law shall be justified."
OF THE COMMANDMENTS IN PARTICULAR
The First Commandment
Expounded
Q. 380. WHAT is the first
commandment?
A. I am the Lord thy God, who brought
thee out of the land of Egypt, and out of
the house of bondage. Thou shalt not
have strange gods before me. Thou shalt
not make to thyself a graven thing, nor
the likeness of any thing that is in
heaven above, or in the earth below, or
of those things that are in the waters
under the earth. Thou shalt not adore
nor worship them; I am the Lord thy
God, mighty, jealous, visiting the sins of
the fathers upon their children, to the
third and fourth generation of them that
hate me; and showing mercy to
thousands of those that love me, and
keep my commandments. Exod. xx.
Q. 381. What are we commanded
by this precept?
33
A. To serve, love, adore, and worship
one only, true, living, and eternal God,
and no more.
Q. 382. What are we forbidden by
this precept?
A. Not to worship any creature for a
God, or give to it the honour which is
due to God.
Q. 383. What is the honour due to
God?
A. A supreme and sovereign honour,
which is called by divines Latria; by
which we honour him as the great
master of life and death, as our creator,
redeemer, preserver, and last end.
Q. 384. How do men sin against
this commandment?
A. By worshipping idols and false gods,
by erring or doubting in faith, by
superstition and witchcraft.
Q. 385. How else?
A. By communicating with infidels or
heretics, by believing dreams, &c.
Q. 386. How do you prove it a
great sin to go to church with
heretics?
A. Because by so doing we outwardly
deny our faith, and profess their false
faith.
Q. 387. What scripture have you
against it?
A. Out of Luke xvii. 23, 24, where Christ
forbids it, saying, "And they shall say
unto you, Lo! here is Christ, Lo, there
Christ; go ye not, neither do you follow
them."
Q. 388. What other proof have
you?
A. Out of Tit. iii. 10, 11. "A man that is a
heretic, after the first and second
admonition, avoid, knowing that he that
is such an one is subverted and sinneth."
Q. 389. How do you prove it
unlawful to go to witches and
fortune-tellers?
A. Out of Deut. xviii. 10, 11. "There shall
not be found among you any one that
shall expiate his son or daughter making
them to pass through the fire, or that
useth divination, or any observer of
times, or enchanter, or witch, or a
charmer, or a wizard, or necromancer,
&c. For all these things our Lord
abhorreth."
Q. 390. What understand you by
these words. Thou shalt not make
to thyself any graven thing, &c.
Thou shalt not adore them, &c.
A. I understand that we must not make
idols or images, nor any graven thing
whatsoever, to adore it as a god, or with
God's honour.
Q. 391. Why are not these words
expressed at length in many of our
short catechisms?
A. Because they are sufficiently included
in the preceding words, "Thou shalt not
have strange (or other) gods before me."
Q. 392. How declare you that?
A. Because if we must have no other but
the only true God, who created heaven
and earth, then it is clear to the reason
of every child, that we must not have
many gods, or any graven things for
gods, or adore any other things for God.
Q. 393. Why do Protestants of
those of new religions, instead of
graven things, translate graven
images?
34
A. Because they have a will to corrupt
the text, in hope by so doing to persuade
ignorant people, that Catholics are
idolaters, and break the first
commandment by making and
worshipping images.
Q. 394. How do you prove they
corrupt the text?
A. Because the Hebrew word is Pesel,
which signifies a graven thing, the Greek
is Idolon, and the Latin is Sculptile, a
graven thing; therefore the word Image
is a mere corruption.
Q. 395. Is it lawful then to give any
honour to the images of Christ and
his saints?
A. Yes, an inferior or relative honour, as
much as they represent unto us heavenly
things, but not God's honour, nor yet the
honour due the saints.
Q. 396. How prove you that?
A. Out of Exod. xxv. 18, 19, 22, where
God himself commanded "two
cherubims to be made of beaten gold,
and to be set on both sides of the ark
(before which the people were to pray)
and promised that he would speak unto
them from the middle of the
cherubims;" therefore it is lawful to
make images and pray before them.
Q. 397. Do not Catholics pray to
images and relics?
A. By no means; we pray before them,
indeed, to excite our devotion, and to
keep our thoughts collected upon
heavenly subjects; but we do not, at all,
pray to them; for we know well they can
neither see, nor hear, nor help us.
Q. 398. What other proof have you
for the lawful use of images?
A. First, out of John iii. 14, where Christ
approves the making and exalting the
brazen serpent, by which the Israelites
were healed in the desert, and owns it to
be an image or figure of himself, exalted
on the cross.
Secondly, because we read in Baronius,
that the famous church historian, in the
year of Christ, 31, that Christ himself
sent his own image to king Abdagar, and
made it also by the miracle on the
handkerchief of St. Veronica, and on his
own shroud.
Add to this, the second Nicene council,
Actio 4, anathematizes image-breakers,
that is such as shall break them in
contempt or scorn, and all such as allege
the places in scripture, which are against
idols, are against the sacred images; and
also those who say that Catholics honour
images as God, with sovereign honour.
Q. 399. How could you further
satisfy a Protestant, that should
charge you with idolatry, in giving
sovereign honour to pictures and
images?
A. I would for satisfaction herein, if
necessary, break a crucifix, or tear a
picture of Jesus Christ in pieces, and
throw the pieces into the fire; and would
show him the council of Trent, Sess. 25,
which teaches thus, "Images are not to
be venerated for any virtue of divinity
that is believed to be in them, or for any
trust or confidence that is to be put in
them, as the Gentiles did of old, who
reposed their hope and trust in their
idols; but because the honour that is
exhibited to them, is referred to the
prototypes represented by them" &c.
Q. 400. What benefits do we
receive by images?
A. Very great, because they movingly
represent to us the mysteries of our
35
Saviour's passion, as also by
martyrdoms and examples of his saints.
Q. 401. Is there not some danger of
Idolatry in the frequent use of
idols?
A. Truly none at all; for it is not possible
that any rational man, who is instructed
in Christianity, would conceive or think
a piece of painted wood or marble, is
that God and man, Jesus Christ, who
was born of the Virgin Mary, died on the
cross, arose from the dead, ascended
into heaven, and sits now on the right
hand of God.
Q. 402. But how, if such
inconveniences happen, at least by
accident?
A. Let the abuse be mended, and not the
good institution taken away or blamed;
For man's nature is subject to hurt itself,
even in the best things, which must not
therefore be given over.
Q. 403. How do you prove it lawful
to paint God the Father like an old
man, seeing he is pure spirit, and
hath no body?
A. Because he appeared to the prophet
Daniel in the shape of an old man, Dan.
7, but this is to be understood, that the
pictures we make, are not the proper
images of God the Father, but the shape
wherein he appeared to Daniel. And the
like is to be understood of the pictures of
angels, to wit, that they are not proper
images of them, according to their
spiritual substance, but of the shape
they appear in to men.
Q. 404. What utility doth accrue to
us by our honouring and
canonizing Saints?
A. Very great, seeing it much conduceth
to the imitation of their virtues, and the
love of God, making us know that it is
possible even for ourselves, to come to
the like reward.
Q. 405. How declare you that?
A. Because the higher esteem we have of
the saints, and the excellency of their
state, the more ardent must needs be
our desire, and the stronger our courage,
to do and undertake what they did and
practised.
Q. 406. Is it lawful to honour the
angels and saints?
A. It is with Dulia, an inferior honour,
proportioned to their excellency, which
they have from God; it is God we honour
in them.
Q. 407. How prove you that?
A. First, out of Josue v. 14, where the
angel of the Lord said to Josue, "I am
the prince of the host of our Lord."
Josue fell on his face to the ground; and
worshipping said, "What saith my Lord
to his servant?'
Secondly, out of Apoc. xxii. 8, where
John (though the angel had already
forbidden him so to do, because of his
apostolical dignity, chap xix. 10.) "fell
down to adore before the feet of the
angel, who shewed him these things."
Q. 408. Is it lawful to honour the
relics of saints?
A. With a relative honour it is, referring
it to God's honour.
Q. 409. How prove you that?
A. First, because a dead man was raised
from death to life by touching the bones
of Eliseus the prophet, 4 Kings xiii. 21.
Secondly, out of Matt. ix. 20, 21, where
we read the woman was healed of her
bloody flux, but by the touching the hem
36
of our Saviour's garment, and believing
it would heal her.
Thirdly, out of Acts xviii. 19. "The
handkerchiefs and aprons which had but
touched the body of St. Paul, cast out
devils, and cured all diseases."
Q. 410. How prove you that dead
and inanimate things, (for
example, medals, crosses,
churches, bread, water and the
like) are capable of sanctity and
honour?
A. First, out of Joshua iv. 16, and Exod.
iii. 5, where the Angel saith to Moses
and Joshua, "Loose thy shoes from 'thy
feet, for the ground whereon thou
standest is holy ground."
Secondly, out of Matt, xxiii. 17, 18,
where we read, that the temple
sanctifieth the gold, and the altar the
gift. "Ye fools and blind, (saith our
Lord,) whether is greater, the gold, or
the temple that sanctifieth the gold? the
gift, or the altar that sanctifieth the gift?
Thirdly, out of Tim. iv. 4, 5. "Every
creature of God is sanctified by the word
of God and prayer," and out of 2 Peter i.
18, where he calls the mountain Tabor a
holy hill, because Christ was
transfigured upon it.
Q. 411. How prove you that
pilgrimages to holy places, as to
mount Calvary, mount Tabor, and
the sepulchre of Christ, are
laudable and pious practices?
A. First, out of Deut. xvi. 16, where God
himself commanded, that thrice a year
all the people should come up into
Jerusalem, to adore and make their
offerings to him."
Secondly, the example of Christ himself,
our blessed Lady, and St. Joseph, "who
went up to Jerusalem, the solemn day of
the Pasch." Luke ii. 41, 42.
Thirdly, out of Acts viii. where the
Ethiopian eunuch, going on a pilgrimage
to Jerusalem, was in his return
converted and baptized by St. Philip, so
pleasing was his pilgrimage to God.
Finally, because it was foretold by the
prophets that these places which Christ
sanctified by his passion should be of
great pilgrimage and adoration, "We will
adore (saith David) in the place where
his feet stood," Psalm cxxxi. 7. And in
Isa. xi. 10, we read, "To him shall the
Gentiles pray, and his sepulchre shall be
glorious."
Q. 412. How do you prove it lawful
to go on pilgrimages to the shrines
of Saints?
A. Because, as you have read already,
their relics are holy and venerable
things, and God is pleased to work great
cures and miracles by them for such as
are devout honourers of them.
Q. 413. If there any power now in
the church to do miracles?
A. There is according to that unlimited
promise of Christ. "And these signs shall
follow them that believe: In my name
they shall cast out devils; they shall
speak with new tongues: they shall lay
their hands upon the sick, and they shall
recover." Mark xvi. 17.
Q. 414. Have these things been
done in latter ages?
A. They have, and are, as you may see in
the unquestioned histories and records
of all Catholic countries; where many
great miracles wrought by the servants
of God, especially at pilgrimages and
shrines of Saints, are yearly registered
under the depositions of eye-witnesses,
37
men above all exceptions, which cannot
be denied unless we deny all history.
Q. 415. Why do the pretended
reformers say miracles are
ceased?
A. Because they have never yet been able
to do any in confirmation of their errors.
Q. 416. Why are so few done here
in our days?
A. By reason of incredulity of many bad
Christians. Matt. xiii. 58.
Q. 417. What necessity is there for
the belief of miracles?
A. Doubtless very great; because the
belief of miracles well grounded, make
men extremely apprehensive of the
presence of God, and his immediate
government of human affairs; so that he
who absolutely denies miracles, is to be
suspected of not believing particular
providence, which is the main string on
which all Christianity depends.
The Second Commandment
Expounded
Q. 418. WHAT is the second
commandment?
A. Thou shalt not take the name of the
Lord by God in vain.
Q. 419. What is forbidden by this
precept.
A. All false, rash, and unnecessary oaths.
Q. 420. What kind of sins are false
and rash oaths?
A. Mortal sins, if they be voluntary and
deliberate, because by such oaths, we
call God to witness a lie; or at least to
that which is uncertain.
Q. 421. What are the necessary
conditions of a lawful oath?
A. Truth, that we hurt not God's honour;
justice that we wrong not our neighbour;
and judgment, that we swear not vainly.
Q. 422. What is the just cause of an
oath?
A. God's honour, our own, or our
neighbour's good and defence.
Q. 423. If a man swears to do that
which is evil, is he bound to keep
his oath?
A. No, he is not bound to keep it; for an
oath is no bond of iniquity.
Q. 424. How prove you a vain or
jesting oath to be a sin?
A. Out of Matt. v. 33. "It was said of old
(saith our Lord) Thou shalt not commit
perjury; but I say unto you, not to swear
at all," that is without just cause.
Q. 425. What other proof have
you?
A. Out of James v. 12. "But above all
things, my brethren, swear not, neither
by heaven, nor by earth, nor by any
other oath. But let your speech be: Yea,
yea: no, no: that you fall not under
judgment."
Q. 426. What else is prohibited by
this precept?
A. All cursing and blaspheming.
Q. 427. How else do men sin
against this precept?
A. By breaking lawful vows, and by
making or keeping unlawful ones.
Q. 428. What is a lawful vow?
A. It is a deliberate and voluntary
promise made to God, of some better
good.
38
Q. 429. How do you prove it lawful
to make vows?
A. Out of Isa. xix. 21. "They shall make
vows unto the Lord, and shall pay
them."
Q. 430. What is commanded by
this precept?
A. To speak always with reverence of
God, and his saints.
The Third Commandment
Expounded
Q. 431. WHAT is the third
commandment?
A. Remember that thou keepest holy the
sabbath day.
Q. 432. When did the Sabbath
begin to be kept?
A. From the very creation of the world;
for then God blessed the seventh day,
and rested on it from all His works. Gen.
ii. 2.
Q. 433. When was this
commandment renewed?
A. In the Old Law; when God gave the
commandments to Moses on mount
Sinai, written with His own finger in two
tables of stone, Exod. xx. 1, &c. xxxi. 18.
Q. 434. Why was the Jewish
Sabbath changed into the Sunday?
A. Because Christ was born upon a
Sunday, arose from the dead upon a
Sunday, and sent down the Holy Ghost
on a Sunday: works not inferior to the
creation of the world.
Q. 435. By whom was it changed?
A. By the Governors of the Church, the
Apostles, who also kept it; for St. John
was in spirit on the Lord’s day (which
was Sunday.) Apoc. i. 10.
Q. 436. How prove you that the
Church hath power to command
feasts and holydays?
A. By the very act of changing the
sabbath into Sunday, which Protestants
allow of; and therefore they fondly
contradict themselves, by keeping
Sunday strictly, and breaking most other
feasts commanded by the same Church.
Q. 437. How prove you that?
A. Because by keeping Sunday, they
acknowledge the Church's power to
ordain feasts, and to command them
under sin; and by not keeping the rest by
her commanded, they again deny, in
fact, the same power.
Q. 438. What other proof have
you?
A. Out of John x. 22, where we read that
Christ himself was present, and kept the
Dedication of the temple in Jerusalem, a
feast ordained by Judas Maccabseus, 1
Mace. iv. 59.
And out of Acts ii. 1, 4, where the
Apostles, keeping the feast of Pentecost,
"were all filled with the Holy Ghost."
Neither do Protestants as yet differ from
this, though some have lately prohibited
and profaned both it and the holy feast
of the Resurrection, and all the other
feasts of the Church.
Q. 439. What commandment have
you from God for obedience to the
Church in things of this nature?
A. Out of Acts xv. 41, where we read that
"St. Paul went about confirming the
Churches, and commanding them to
keep the precepts of the Apostles and
the ancients." And out of Luke x. 16, "He
that heareth you, heareth me; and he
that despiseth you (the Church)
despiseth me."
39
Q. 440. May temporal princes and
the laity make a holy day?
A. With consent and approbation of the
Church, they may, otherwise not;
because this is an act of spiritual
jurisdiction.
Q. 441. For what end doth the
Church ordain holydays?
A. For the increase of piety, and the
memory of special benefits received
from God.
Q. 442. If keeping the Sunday be a
church precept, why is it
numbered in the decalogue, which
are the Commandments of God,
and the Law of Nature?
A. Because the substance or chief part of
it, namely Divine Right, and the Law of
Nature; though the determinating this
particular day, Sunday rather than
Saturday, be a Church ordinance and
precept.
Q. 443. Did not Christ, when he
confirmed the rest, confirm also
this commandment?
A. In as much as it belongeth to the law
of nature, he did: but not as it belonged
to the ceremonial law of the Jews, and
was affixed to Saturday, therefore, now
we are not bound to keep Saturday.
Q. 444. Why so, I pray you?
A. Because that particular day was a
command of the ceremonial law of the
Jews, which was abrogated, and ceased
to oblige after the death of Christ.
Q. 445. To what are we obliged by
this precept?
A. To spend Sunday in prayer and divine
service.
Q. 446. What is the best means to
sanctify the Sunday?
A. By hearing mass, confessing our sins,
communicating, hearing sermons, and
reading good books.
Q. 447. What is forbidden by this
precept?
A. All profane employments, and servile
labours, excepting such as are of
necessity, as dressing meat, serving
cattle, &c. or such as appertain to piety
and works of mercy.
Q. 448. Who break this
commandment?
A. Such as without necessity spend any
considerable part of the Sunday in
servile labours.
Q. 449. How else is the Sunday
profaned?
A. By spending all the morning
slothfully in bed, or vainly dressing
ourselves; by missing divine service
when we may hear it, or spending a part
of the day in drinking, gaming, dancing,
or the like.
Q. 450. Is there any thing now in
this first table of the law
impossible to be observed?
A. No certainly; for nothing can be more
easy and delightful to the true servant of
God, than the things that are here
commanded.
Q. 451. Why do you now divide the
table of Moral law into three and
seven, whereas anciently some
Fathers assigned four to the first
table, and six to the last?
A. Concerning the manner of limiting
the number of commandments to each
table, the scripture says nothing, not so
much as which is the third, which is the
40
fourth commandment, and therefore it
is in itself indifferent: St. Jerome divides
them into four and six, which is no
where condemned, St. Augustine into
three and seven, who is more generally
followed; but indeed the matter is of no
great importance how we reckon them
so we retain them in our books, and
keep them in our lives.
Q. 452. But what reason can justify
the omission of so great a part of
the text, when we transcribe the
commandments into our
catechisms?
A. Such books being composed
principally for the unlearned, are by the
pastors of the church abridged into the
shortest and easiest method they can,
prudently condescending to the weak
memories and low capacities of the
people: nor can the church be accused of
the least shadow of corrupting or
omitting any part of the
commandments, or of God's word; since
in no Catholic Bible is there one syllable
left out; and whether the first
commandment, after this account, be
divided, and the two last united, or
contrawise the last divided and the first
united, is not at all material, the whole
ten commandments being entirely
contained in both, or either way.
THE SECOND TABLE OF THE
LAW
The Fourth Commandment
Expounded
Q. 453. WHAT is the fourth
commandment?
A. Honour thy father and mother.
Q. 454. What are we commanded
by this precept.
A. To love, reverence, obey, and relieve
our parents in their wants.
Q. 455. Why to love them?
A. Because, under God they are the chief
causes of our very life and being; and do
not only bring us up with much love,
labour, and solicitude.
Q. 456. How are we bound to
reverence them?
A. Not only inwardly in our heart, but
also outwardly in our carriage and
comportment.
Q. 457. Why to obey them?
A. Because they are God's vicegerents,
and have received power from him
(from whom is all paternity in heaven
and earth) both to direct us, instruct us,
and correct us.
Q. 458. In what things are we
bound to obey our parents?
A. In all that is not sin, according to that,
"Children obey your parents in all
things, for that is pleasing unto God."
Col. iii. 20.
Q. 459. What is prohibited by the
precept?
A. All sourness, stubbornness, and
disobedience to parents.
Q. 460. What is the reward of
dutiful children?
A. Long and happy life; "The blessing of
heaven comes upon them, and remains
to the end of their days." Eccl. iii. 10.
Q. 461. What is the reward of
undutiful children?
A. A short and sinful life, accompanied
with an untimely death witness the
example of Absalom, 2 Kings viii. 14.
41
Q. 462. What other proof have
you?
A. That of Prov. xxx. 17. "The eye that
mocketh at his father, and that despiseth
the travail of his mother in bearing him,
let the ravens of the torrent pick it out
and the young of the eagle eat it."
Q. 463. What signifies the word
Father?
A. It signifies not only our corporal
parents, but also our Ghostly Father,
and all lawful superiors.
Q. 464. What owe we to the
Ghostly Father?
A. Love, reverence, obedience, and
maintenance.
Q. 465. Why love?
A. Because they are the fathers and
feeders of our souls, and under God and
his saints, the instrumental causes of
our spiritual good: "For in Christ Jesus I
have begotten you through the gospel,"
(saith St. Paul) 1 Cor. iv. 15.
Q. 466. Why reverence?
A. Because they are God's anointed, and
represent the person of Christ.
Q. 467. Why obedience?
A. Because God hath appointed them to
be our spiritual pastors, guides, and
governors.
Q. 468. In what are we bound to
obey them?
A. In all things belonging to faith,
doctrine, and the government of our
souls.
Q. 469. Is any great honour due to
priests and ghostly fathers?
A. There is, according to that of St. Paul.
"Let the priests who rule well be
esteemed worthy of double honour;
especially they who labour in the word
and doctrine." 1 Tim. v. 17.
Q. 470. Have you any other place?
A. Yes, Eccle. vii. 13, 32, 33, "With all thy
soul fear our Lord and reverence his
priests, with all thy strength, love them
that made thee and forsake not his
master, honour God with all thy soul,
and honour the priests." And the reason
is, for if we owe love, honour, and
obedience to our carnal parents, much
more to our spiritual, by how much the
soul surpasseth the body. Again, as there
is none greater than priests, who are
empowered to shut and open the gates
of heaven, as also to convert the
substance of bread and wine, into the
most precious body and blood of our
blessed Saviour: to no person is greater
honour due, than to them who
personate Christ himself, so that he who
despiseth them despiseth Christ himself,
and the disregard of them is the origin of
impiety.
Q. 471. How may we sin against
priests and ghostly fathers?
A. By disobeying or detracting them, or
believing slanderous reports against
them, upon mere hearsay, or the
testimony of insufficient witnesses, or
without witnesses.
Q. 472. What testimony is
sufficient against a priest?
A. I will tell you out of St. Paul's mouth:
"Against a priest (saith he to Timothy
the bishop of Ephesus) receive not an
accusation under two or three
witnesses." 1 Tim. v. 19, and 21, "I
charge thee before God, and Christ
Jesus, and the elect angels, that thou
observe these things without prejudice,
42
doing nothing by declining to either
side."
Q. 473. Is it convenient to ask a
blessing of priests?
A. It is, because they give it in the name
and person of Christ.
Q. 474. What warrant have you for
it?
A. First out of Mark 14, 16, where "Christ
laying his hands upon the children,
blessed them."
Secondly, the example of Melchisedech
blessing Abraham; upon which St. Paul
saith, "without all contradiction, that
which is less, is blessed of the better."
Heb. vii. 7.
Q. 475. What scripture have you
for obedience to priests?
A. Heb. xiii. 17. "Obey your prelates, and
be subject to them; for they watch, as
being to render an account for your
souls." And in the old law, disobedience
to the priests was punished with death,
Deut. xvii. 12.
Q. 476. In what are we bound
under sin to obey princes and
temporal magistrates?
A. In all things (which are not sin)
belonging to the good and peace of the
commonwealth.
Q. 477. How prove you that?
A. First, out of Rom. xiii. 1. "Let every
soul be subject to the higher powers, for
there is no power but of God: he
therefore that resists power, resists the
ordinance of God."
Secondly, out of 1 Pet. ii. 13, 14. "Be ye
subject to every creature for God,
whether to the king as excelling, or to
magistrates, as sent by him to the
revenge of malefactors.
Q. 478. What if kings or
magistrates command us to do sin,
or things against our conscience?
A. Then we must answer them with the
apostles, 'we must obey God, rather than
men." Acts v. 29.
Q. 479. In what are servants bound
to obey their masters?
A. In all things that are not sin,
belonging to their charge.
Q. 480. How prove you that?
A. Out of Coloss. iii. 22. "Servants, obey
in all things your masters, according to
the flesh, not serving the eye, as pleasing
men, but in simplicity of heart, as
pleasing God.
Q. 481. How do servants sin
against their masters?
A. By neglecting their commands,
stealing or spoiling their goods, &c.
The Fifth Commandment
Expounded
Q. 482. WHAT is the fifth
commandment?
A. Thou shalt not kill.
Q. 483. What is prohibited by this?
A. All murder, unjust shedding of blood,
fighting and quarreling.
Q. 484. Is it not lawful to kill in any
cause?
A. Yes, in a just war, or when public
justice requires it: "For the magistrate
beareth not the sword without cause."
Rom. i. 4. As also in the blameless
defence of our own, or our innocent
43
neighbour's life, against an unjust
invader.
Q. 485. Is it lawful to fight duels,
appointing a set time and place,
for private interest, or punctilios
of honour?
A. No, by no means; for the church hath
forbidden it under excommunication, to
be incurred ipso facto; and such as die in
duels, can be neither have Christian
burial nor be prayed for the church.
Q. 486. How prove you all fighting
and quarreling to be unlawful?
A. Out of Matt. v. 39. "You have heard
(saith Christ) it was said of old, and eye
for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth; but I
say unto you not to resist evil, but if any
other strike thee on the right cheek, turn
to him also the other."
Q. 487. What else is forbidden by
this precept?
A. To seek, wish, or desire our own, or
any other man's death, out of impatience
or passion, or to cause women with child
to miscarry.
The Sixth Commandment
Expounded
Q. 488. WHAT is the sixth
commandment?
A. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
Q. 489. What is prohibited by this
precept?
A. All carnal sin with another man's
wife, or another woman's husband, and
chiefly adultery; as also fornication and
pollution.
Q. 490. How prove you fornication
and pollution to be mortal sins?
A. Out of Col. iii. 5, 6. "Mortify,
therefore, (saith St. Paul,) your
members, which are upon earth:
fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil
concupiscence, and covetousness, which
is the service of idols: for which things
the wrath of God cometh upon the
children of unbelief."
Q. 491. In what case is it lawful for
a man to dismiss his wife?
A. Only in case of evident adultery.
Q. 492. Can he that hath so
dismissed his wife, marry another
during her life?
A. He cannot; for "he that dismisseth his
wife and marries another, committeth
adultery." Matt. v. 32. And Luke xvi. 18.
"He that marries her, that is so
dismissed, commits adultery."
Q. 493. Why is adultery a far
greater sin than fornication?
A. Because it is a greater injury to our
innocent neighbour, as also to the
sacrament of matrimony.
Q. 494. How prove you that a wife
so dismissed from her husband,
cannot marry again during her
husband's life?
A. Out of 1 Cor. vii. 10, 11. "But to them,
that are married, not I, but the Lord
commandeth, that the wife depart not
from her husband: and if she depart,
that she remain unmarried." And ver.
39-
"A woman is bound to the law, so long as
her husband liveth; but if her husband
sleep (that is be dead) she is at liberty,
let her marry whom she will."
Q. 495. What else is forbidden by
this precept?
44
A. Whoredom, incest, sacrilege, and sins
against nature.
Q. 496. Why is lust hateful in the
sight of God?
A. Because it defiles in us the image of
God, and the temple of the Holy Ghost.
Q. 497. What more is here
prohibited?
A. Unchaste touching of ourselves or
others, with delight in lustful thoughts
and kisses.
Q. 498. What is the heir of
unlawful lust?
A. Death and damnation; for, "neither
fornicators nor adulterers, nor
effeminate," (that is such as defile
themselves with voluntary pollution,)
"shall possess the kingdom of God." 1
Cor. vi. 9.
The Seventh Commandment
Expounded
Q. 499. WHAT is the seventh
commandment?
A. Thou shalt not steal.
Q. 500. What is forbidden by this
precept?
A. All unjust taking away, or detaining
that which is another man's.
Q. 501. How many kinds of theft be
there?
A. Three kinds, simple theft, which is a
secret taking away that which is another
man's; rapine, which is a taking away by
open violence, or keeping of that which
is another man's; and sacrilege, which is
stealing of sacred things, or out of
sacred places.
Q. 502. When is theft a mortal sin?
A. When the thing stolen is of a
considerable value, or causeth a
considerable hurt to our neighbour.
Q. 503. How prove you that:
A. Out of 1 Cor. vi. 10. "Neither thieves,
nor covetous men, nor extortioners,
shall possess the kingdom of God."
Q. 504. What doth the sin of theft
oblige us to?
A. To make restitution of the things
stolen to the right owner, if we be able,
else the sin will not be forgiven us.
Q. 505. What else is here
prohibited?
A. All usury, bribery, cozenage in
gaming, or unjust gain by buying or
selling.
Q. 506. What is usury?
A. It is to receive, or to hope for some
money or moneys' worth, as gain, above
the principle, immediately out of the
consideration of loan.
Q. 507. How prove you usury and
bribery to great sins?
A. Out of Psalm xiv. 1, 6. "O Lord, who
shall dwell in thy tabernacle, or who
shall rest in thy holy mountain? He that
have not given his money to use, nor
taken bribes upon the innocent man."
And from Ezek. xxii 12. "Thou hast taken
usury and increase, and hast covetously
oppressed thy neighbours. I will
disperse thee in the nations, and will
scatter thee among the countries."
Likewise from Luke vi. 35, where the
Lord says, "Do good and lend, hoping
for nothing thereby." See on this the
Catechism of the holy council of Trent.
Q. 508. How are rich men soonest
brought to beggary?
45
A. By mingling other men's goods
among their own.
Q. 509. How do men generally sin
against this precept?
A. Princes, by imposing unjust taxes on
their subjects; subjects, by not paying
their due taxes to their princes: buyers
and sellers, by deceitful weight and
measure, or by exceeding the just prices:
masters by defrauding servants of their
wages: and servants, by embezzling their
master's goods. "And that no man over-
reach or deceive his brother in business:
because the Lord is the avenger of all
such things, as we have told you before,
and have testified." 1 Thess. iv. 6.
The Eighth Commandment
Expounded
Q. 510. WHAT is the eighth
commandment?
A. Thou shalt not bear false witness
against thy neighbour.
Q. 511. What is prohibited by this
precept?
A. All false testimonials, rash judgment,
and lies.
Q. 512. Why is false testimony so
great a sin?
A. Because it is against the justice of
God, and our neighbour.
Q. 513. How prove you that corrupt
judgment is a great sin?
A. Out of Isa. v. 22, 23, 24. "Woe be to
you that call evil good, that justify the
impious man for bribes and rob the just
man of his justice; for as fire devoureth
the stubble, so shall the root of these
men be ashes."
Q. 514. Why is rash judgment a
great sin?
A. Because it robs God of his judgment,
and our neighbour of his good name:
"Do not ye judge, that you be not
judged." Matt. vii. 1.
Q. 515. Why is it a sin to lie?
A. Because "the devil is a liar, and the
father of all lies." John viii. 44.
Q. 516. What else is prohibited by
the precept?
A. The crimes of whispering, flattery,
detraction.
Q. 517. What is whispering?
A. It is to break friendship between
others, by speaking ill of one unto the
other behind his back.
Q. 518. What is flattery?
A. to attribute to another some
perfection which he hath not, or to
praise him for that which he deserves
not.
Q. 519. What is detraction?
A. Is it a secret staining and blotting
another's good name.
Q. 520. What is calumny?
A. It is telling a falsehood of our
neighbour to his prejudice.
Q. 521. Are lies, backbiting,
flattery, affronts, detraction, and
calumny, grievous sins?
A. They are often very grievous sins. The
scriptures saith, Prov. vi. 16, 19. "Six
things there are which the Lord hateth;
and the seventh his soul destesteth.
Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that
shed innocent blood, a heart that
deviseth wicked plots, feet that are swift
to run into mischief, a deceitful witness
that uttereth lies, and him that soweth
discord among the brethren.
46
Q. 522. What is he bound to, that
hath hurt his neighbour in any of
these kinds?
A. To make him satisfaction, and restore
him his good name.
Q. 523. How for example?
A. If he have told a hurtful lie of him, he
is bound to unsay it; or if he have
revealed his secret sin, he is bound to
speak well of the same party, and to
mitigate the matter as well as he can.
Q. 524. Is it a sin to hearken to
detraction?
A. To do it willingly, and with delight, or
so as to encourage the detractor, it is; for
by so doing we cooperate with the
detractor.
Q. 525. How them must we behave
ourselves among detractors?
A. If they be inferiors, we must
reprehend them; if equals or superiors,
we must show ourselves at least not
pleased with that discourse.
Q. 526. What is rash judgment?
A. That which is grounded on mere
hearsay, jealousy, and surmises without
any moral certainty, or great probability.
Q. 527. When is a lie a mortal sin?
A. When it is any great dishonour to God
or notable prejudice to our neighbour:
otherwise, if it be merely officious, or
trifling, it is but a venial sin.
The Ninth and Tenth
Commandments Expounded
Q. 528. WHAT are the ninth and
tenth commandments?
A. Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's
wife, Thou shalt not covet thy
neighbour's goods.
Q. 529. What is prohibited by these
commandments?
A. The inordinate will or desire of
unlawful lust, especially adultery, and of
all these.
Q. 530. What else?
A. Not only deliberate desire or consent,
but likewise all voluntary delight and
complacency, in covetous or impure
thoughts and motions of the flesh.
Q. 531. How prove you that
unchaste desires are mortal sins?
A. Out of Matt. v. 27, 28. "It was said of
old, Thou shalt not commit adultery; but
I say unto you, whosoever shall see a
woman to lust after her, he hath already
committed adultery in his heart."
Q. 532. How prove you covetous
desires to be great sins?
A. Out of 1 Tim. vi. 9. "For they who
would become rich, fall into temptation,
and into the snare of the devil, and into
many unprofitable and hurtful desires,
which drown men in destruction and
perdition."
Q. 533* Is there any sin in those
motions of concupiscence, which
we feel an suffer against our wills?
A. There is not, for nothing is sin, which
is not voluntary and deliberate. Nay, if
resisted they become the occasion of
merit to us. To them were liable the
most perfect saints, and even the
apostles themselves; for Paul, 2 Cor. xii.
7, 8, 9, writes, "And lest the greatness of
the revelations should puff me up, there
was given me a sting of my flesh, and
angel of Satan, to buffet me. For which
thing I thrice besought the Lord, that it
might depart from me: And he said to
me: My grace is sufficient for thee: for
power is made perfect in infirmity.
47
Q. 534. What think you now of this
second table of the law, is there
any thing that favours of
impossibility?
A. No certainly, for there is nothing
commanded us, which the very law of
nature and right reason doth not dictate
to us; and therefore ought to be
observed and done, although it were not
commanded us.
Q. 535. Is there any thing but what
every man expects and desires to
have done to himself by others?
A. There is not, therefore we must do the
same to others, according to that, "All
things whatsoever you will that men do
unto you, do ye also to them; for this is
the law and the prophets." Matt. vii. 12.
Q. 536. Why then do Protestants
pretend and say, that the
commandments are impossible to
be kept?
A. Because they are not willing to oblige
themselves to the observance of them,
but had rather make God the author of
sin, by commanding impossibilities, (a
most high blasphemy) and justify their
own iniquities by saying, they cannot
help it; than humbly acknowledge and
confess their sins, with purpose to
amend, by an acceptance of the law of
God.
Chapter 9.
The Precepts of the Church Expounded
Q. 537. HOW many are the
commandments of the church?
A. There be six principle ones.
The First Precept of the
Church Expounded
Q. 538. What is the first?
A. "To hear mass on Sundays and
holydays," if we have opportunity to do
it, and there be no just cause to the
contrary.
Q. 539. Why on all Sundays?
A. In thanksgiving for the benefits of the
week past, as also to sanctity the Lord's
day.
Q. 540. For what other reason?
A. In memory that the same Christ, who
is offered upon the altar at the mass for
our sins, was born, rose from the dead,
and sent down the Holy Ghost on a
Sunday.
Q. 541. Why on all holydays?
A. Either in memory of some special
benefit, or else for a commemoration of
some peculiar saint, so to move
ourselves to imitate his example.
Q. 542. How prove you that the
church hath power to ordain and
command feasts?
A. First, by the example of the church in
the apostle's time, which ordained the
feast of Christmas in honour of the
Nativity of Christ; Easter in honour of
his resurrection; Whitsuntide, in honour
of the coming of the Holy Ghost, in
tongues of fire.
48
Secondly, out of St. Clement, the disciple
of St. Peter, in his eighth book of
apostolical constitutions, where he
witnesseth. "That the apostles gave
order for the celebrating of St. Stephen's
and some other of their fellow apostles'
days after their deaths."
Thirdly, out of 2 Thess. iii. 4. "And we
have confidence concerning you in the
Lord, that the things which we
command, you both do, and will do."
And ver. 14. "And if any man obey not
our word by this epistle, note that man,
and do not keep company with him, he
maybe ashamed."
Fourthly, out of 1 Thess. iv. 8, where St.
Paul, (speaking of the precepts he had
given his brethren,) saith, "He that
despiseth these things, despiseth not
man, but God, who also hath given his
Holy Spirit in us." See what was said
before in the third commandment of
God.
The Second Precept of the
Church Expounded
Q. 543. WHAT is the second
commandment of the church?
A. To fast Lent, Vigils commanded,
Ember days, and with abstinence from
flesh on Fridays and Saturdays.
Q. 544. Why Lent?
A. In imitation of Christ our Lord, who
fasted forty days and forty nights in the
desert for our sins, without once eating
or drinking.
Q. 545. Can we fast in this
manner?
A. We cannot; but we must do at least
what we are able.
Q. 546. How prove you fasting to
be a pious practice?
A. By the example of Christ and his
Saints, and out of Luke ii. 37, where we
read, "That Anna the prophetess
departed not from the temple serving
day and night by fasting and prayer."
Q. 547. How prove you fasting to
me meritorious?
A. Out of Matt. vi. 16, 17, 18. "And when
you fast, be not sad, like the hypocrites;
but anoint thy head, and wash thy face,
that thou appear not unto men to fast,
but to thy Father which is in secret, and
thy Father who seeth in secret, will
repay thee."
Q. 548. How prove you abstinence
from certain meats to be
commendable?
A. Because it was proscribed by an angel
to St. John. "He shall be great before the
Lord, wine and cider he shall not drink."
Luke i. 15. And in Matt. iii. 4, we read,
"That his food was locusts and wild
honey."
Q. 549. For what is fasting
available?
A. For the remission of sins and
appeasing the wrath of God, according
to that, "Be ye converted unto me in
your whole heart, in fasting, weeping,
and mourning," Joel ii. 12. To mortify all
the lustful desires of the flesh; and that
it hath special force against the Devil:
"This kind of devil (saith our Lord) can
go out by nothing but by prayer and
fasting," Mark ix. 29.
Q. 550. Why Vigils?
A. To prepare ourselves for a devout
keeping the feasts that follow.
Q. 551. Why Ember-days?
A. Because on those days the church
giveth Holy orders and ordained priests;
49
and for that cause hath dedicated them
to public prayers and fasting.
Q. 552. What ground have you for
that?
A. Out of Acts xiii. 2, 3. "And as they (the
apostles) were ministering to our Lord,
and fasting, the Holy Ghost said,
Separate ye unto me Saul and Barnabas
to the work whereto I have them. Then
with fasting and praying, and imposing
hand on them, they dismissed them."
Q. 553. Why abstinence on
Fridays?
A. In memory that Christ suffered for us
upon a Friday; drinking gall and vinegar
on the cross; but especially by custom,
which is a good as law.
Q. 554. Why abstinence on
Saturdays?
A. To prepare ourselves for a devout
keeping of the Sunday, as also in honour
of the blessed Virgin Mary, who stood
firm in faith on that day, the apostles
themselves wavering.
The Third Precept of the
Church Expounded
Q. 555. WHAT is the third
commandment of the church?
A. To confess our sins at least once a
year.
Q. 556. Why was that commanded?
A. Because otherwise, libertines would
not have done it once in many years.
The Fourth Precept of the
Church Expounded
Q. 557. WHAT is the fourth?
A. To receive the blessed Sacrament at
least once a year, and that at Easter, or
thereabouts.
Q. 558. Why at Easter?
A. Because Christ instituted the blessed
Sacrament of the Eucharist at his last
supper, the Thursday before Easter day.
Q. 559. What said it, or
thereabouts?
A. Because it will satisfy the precept, if it
be done at any time between Palm
Sunday and Low-Sunday.
The Fifth Precept of the
Church Expounded
Q. 560. WHAT is the fifth?
A. To pay tithes to our pastors.
Q. 561. Why so?
A. Because as they feed us spiritually, it
is fit we should feed them corporally.
Q. 562. How prove you that?
A. Out of Gal. vi. 6. Let him that is
catechised in the word communicate to
him that catechised him, in all his goods.
And 1 Cor. ix. 13, 14. They that serve the
altar participate with the altar, and so
the Lord ordained that they who preach
the gospel should live by the gospel.
The Sixth Precept of the
Church Expounded
Q. 563. WHAT is the sixth?
A. Not to solemnize marriage on times
prohibited that is, from the first Sunday
of Advent, until Twelfth day be past, nor
from Ash-Wednesday, until Low-Sunday
be past.
50
Q. 564. Why so?
A. Because those are times of special
piety and penance, and should not
therefore be spent in feasting, or carnal
pleasures.
Q. 565. What sin is to break any of
these church commandments?
A. A mortal sin of disobedience,
according to that "He that will not hear
the church, let him be unto thee as a
heather and a publican." Matt. xvii. 17.
Chapter 10.
The Council of Christ and his Church Expounded
Q. 566. HOW many councils are
there?
A. There be three principle ones.
The First Counsel
Q. 567. What is the first of them?
A. Voluntary poverty, which is observed
by willingly leaving all things to follow
Christ.
Q. 568. How prove you that to be a
work of perfection?
A. Out of Matt. xix. 21. "If thou wilt be
perfect, go, sell what thou hast, and give
to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure
in heaven, and come and follow me."
Q. 569. How prove you this to be
meritorious?
A. Out of the same chap. ver. 27, 28, 29,
"When Peter, answering, said to him:
Behold, we have left all things, and have
followed he: what, therefore, shall we
have? And Jesus said to them: Amen I
say to you, that you, who have followed
me, in the regeneration, when the Son of
man shall sit on the seat of his majesty,
you also shall sit on twelve seats judging
the twelve tribes of Israel. And every one
that hath left house, or brethren, or
sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or
lands for my name's sake, shall receive a
hundredfold and shall possess life
everlasting."
The Second Counsel
Q. 570. WHAT is the second
counsel?
A. Perpetual chastity; which is a
voluntary abstaining from marriage, and
all carnal pleasures, for the love of God.
Q. 571. Is this also a work of
perfection?
A. It is, for Christ himself was born of a
virgin, and counseled virginity, though
he commanded it not.
Q. 572. How prove you that?
A. Out of Matt. xix. 12. "There be
eunuchs, (said he,) which have made
themselves so for the kingdom of
heaven; he that can take let him take."
Q. 573. How prove you that
virginity is a more prefect state
than marriage, or that it is lawful
to vow virginity?
A. Out of 1 Cor. vii. 37, 38. "He that hath
determined in his heart, being settled,
51
not having any necessity, but having
power of his own will to keep his virgin,
doth well; therefore he that joineth his
virgin in marriage doth well, but he that
joineth her not, doth better"
Q. 574. What other proof have
you?
A. Out of 1 Tim. v. 5. "But she that is a
widow indeed, (that is, a vowed widow,)
and desolate, let her hope in God, and
continue in prayer and supplications
night and day." And ver. 11, 12. "But the
younger widows avoid, for they, when
they shall be wanton in Christ, will
marry, having damnation, because they
have made void their first faith, that is,
their vow of chastity, according to the
fourth council of Carthage, Canon 104,
and all the Fathers."
Q. 575. Who was the first that
taught marriage to be better than
virginity, and persuaded priests
and nuns to marry?
A. Jovinian, an old condemned Heretic,
according to St. Augustin, in his book
Heresies, Her. 82, and in his 2d book of
Retractions, he calls him a monster for
it, and saith the church stoutly resisted
him, chap. 22.
The Third Counsel
Q. 576. WHAT is the third counsel?
A. Obedience, which is a voluntary
submission to another's will, and in all
that is not sin.
Q. 577. What warrant have you for
that?
A. First the example of Christ himself,
who was obedient to our Lady and St.
Joseph, "And he went down with them
and came to Nazareth, and was subject
to them." Luke ii. 51.
Secondly, Heb. xiii. 17. "Obey your
prelates, and be subject to them; for they
watch, being to render an account for
your souls."
Chapter 11.
Of the Sacraments in general
Q. 578. HOW many Sacraments
are there?
A. Seven.
Q. 579. How call you them?
A. Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist,
Penance, Extreme Unction, Holy Order,
and Matrimony. See the Council of
Trent, Sess. 7. Can. 1.
Q. 580. Is there any cause why the
number of Sacraments should be
seven?
A. Yes; a probable cause is the
proportion which is between spiritual
and corporal life.
Q. 581. In what consists this
proportion?
A. In this; that as in a corporal and
nature life, there be seven principle or
chief necessities, so are there likewise
52
seven spiritual, to which the seven
Sacraments correspond.
Q. 582. What is our first corporal
necessity?
A. To be born into this world: to this
baptism corresponds, by which we are
regenerated unto God, and born the
heirs of God and co-heirs of Christ.
Q. 583. What is the second
corporal necessity?
A. To be confirmed in our strength and
growth, without which we can never be
made men: to this answers
confirmation, by which we are made
strong and perfect Christians, able to
profess our faith before our enemies.
Q. 584. What is our third corporal
necessity?
A. That (being now made men) we have
a competence of daily food and
sustenance; to which the blessed
Eucharist corresponds, by which our
souls are fed with divine grace as often
as we worthily receive it, or offer it with
the priest on the altar.
Q. 585. What is the fourth
necessity of the body?
A. That we have physic when we are sick
and wounded; to this the sacrament of
penance answers; by which our maladies
and sores of sin are healed.
Q. 586. What is our fifth necessity
of the body?
A. That we have the necessary helps
against the agonizing pangs of death; to
this corresponds extreme unction, by
which our soul is strengthened in her
last agony, against the violent assaults of
the devil.
Q. 587. What is the sixth corporal
necessity?
A. "That we be governed by laws and
magistrates, so to avoid injustice and
confusion:" to this Holy Order
corresponds, by which we are provided
with spiritual magistrates to guide and
govern us.
Q. 588. What is the seventh
corporal necessity?
A. That we be multiplied in a lawful
manner; and to this matrimony
corresponds, by which we are not only
multiplied in a natural, but in a holy and
sacramental way.
Q. 589. What is a Sacramental in
general?
A. It is a visible sign of invisible grace,
divinely instituted by Christ, for our
sanctification.
Q. 590. How prove you that Christ
ordained them all?
A. Because it is not in the power of any
pure creature to give infallible virtue,
causing grace, to sensible and material
things, such as the sacraments are;
according to the council of Trent, Sess.
7. Can. 1.
Q. 591. From what have the
Sacraments their force and
efficacy?
A. From the blood and passion of Christ,
which they apply to our souls.
Q. 592. How prove you that?
A. Rom. vi. 3. "Know you not that all
that we who are baptized in Christ
Jesus, are baptized in his death?" Rom.
v. 9. "Much more therefore, now being
justified in his blood, shall we be saved
from wrath by him."
Q. 593. For what end did Christ
ordain the Sacraments?
53
A. To be external and visible marks and
professions of his holy faith, by which
the faithful might be known from
Infidels and Heretics; and also to be
effectual means of our salvation, and
certain remedies against sin.
Q. 594. What things are essential
to a Sacrament?
A. Matter and form.
Q. 595* Do all the seven
Sacraments give grace?
A. They do, according to the council of
Trent, Sess. 7.
Q. 596. What is grace?
A. It is a supernatural quality produced
in our souls and inherent in them, by
which we are made the adopted children
of God, special partakers of the divine
nature, and like to God, in some degree;
as iron is made like to fire by heat.
Q. 597. How many of these
Sacraments give character?
A. Three: Baptism, Confirmation, and
Holy Order.
Q. 598. What is a sacramental
character?
A. It is a supernatural mark in the soul,
whereby be are marked for God's
servants, which can never be blotted out.
Q. 599. In what manner do the
sacraments give and cause grace?
A. As a means or instruments only; for
God is always the principal cause
thereof.
Q. 600. Who is the ordinary
minister of a Sacrament?
A. A priest; excepting Holy Orders and
Confirmation, which are referred to the
Bishops alone.
Q. 601. Why did Christ confine the
administration of the Sacraments
to the Hierarchy and to the priests
only?
A. "O the depth of the riches, of the
wisdom and of the knowledge of God!
How incomprehensible are his
judgments, and how unsearchable his
ways! For who hath known the mind of
the Lord? Or who hath been his
counsellor?" Rom. xi. And we know
from St. Paul, Ephes. iv. 11, that "Christ
gave indeed some to be apostles, and
some prophets, and others evangelists,
and others pastors and teachers. That
we may not now be children, tossed to
and fro, and carried about with every
wind of doctrine, in the wickedness of
men, in craftiness by which they lie in
wait to deceive." Hence, St. Paul,
speaking of the Sacraments, says, 1 Cor.
iv. 1. "So let them consider us as the
ministers of Christ and dispensers of the
mysteries of God." "And we are (2 Cor. v.
20.) therefore ambassadors of Christ:
God, as it were, exhorting by us."
Q. 602. Is the intention of the
ministers to do what Christ
ordained, a condition, without
which the Sacraments subsist not?
A. It is; also the intention of the receiver
to receive what Christ ordained, if he be
at the years of understanding?
Q. 603. Why say you, If he be at the
years of understanding?
A. Because for infants in the Sacraments
of baptism the intention of the Church
sufficeth.
Baptism Expounded
Q. 604. WHY is Baptism the first
Sacrament?
54
A. Because by it we are born again, or
created anew in Christ Jesus, and
therefore before it we are not capable of
receiving any other.
Q. 605. What is Baptism?
A. It is an exterior washing of the body,
under a set form of words.
Q. 606. What is the necessary
matter of Baptism?
A. Natural water only; for artificial water
will not suffice.
Q. 607. What is the form of it?
A. I baptize thee in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Ghost.
Q. 608. What if a man leave out the
word, (I baptize) or any of the
three persons?
A. Then the baptism is invalid.
Q. 609. Where did Christ express
the form of baptism and give a
command to baptize?
A. In Matt, xxvii. 29. "Go therefore,
(saith he) teach ye all nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."
Q. 610. Can a man be saved
without baptism?
A. He cannot, unless he have it either
actual or in desire, with contrition, or to
be baptized in his blood as the holy
Innocents were, which suffered for
Christ.
Q. 611. How prove you that?
A. Out of John iii. 5. "Unless a man be
born again of water, and the Holy Spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God."
Q. 612. Can no man but a priest
baptize?
A. Yes, in case of necessity, any layman
or woman may do it, and not otherwise.
Q. 613. What is a chief necessity?
A. When a child is in danger of death,
and a priest cannot be had.
Q. 614. What are the effects of
baptism?
A. It makes us the children of God, and
remits both original and actual sin, if he
that is baptized be guilty of it.
Secondly, it infuseth justifying grace into
the soul, with habits of faith, hope, and
charity,
and all supernatural gifts and virtues.
Q. 615. How prove you that?
A. Out of Gal. iii. 27. "As many of you as
are baptized in Christ, have put on
Christ." Secondly, out of 1 Cor. vi. 10,11
where speaking of fornicators, idolaters,
thieves, adulterers, and liars "These
things, (saith St. Paul) ye were, but ye
are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye
are justified in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ, and in the spirit of God."
Thirdly, out of Tit. v. 6, 7. "He hath
saved us by the laver of regeneration
and renovation of the Holy Ghost, whom
he hath abundantly poured out upon us,
by Jesus Christ our Saviour, that being
justified by his grace we may be heirs,
according to the hope of life
everlasting."
Q. 616. What other effect hath
baptism?
A. It makes a spiritual mark or character
in the soul, which shall remain for ever,
either to our great joy in heaven, or our
confusion in hell.
55
Q. 617. What sin is it to baptize a
man twice?
A. A mortal sin of sacrilege.
Q. 618. How prove you that?
A. Out of Heb. vi. 4, 5, 6. "It is
impossible for those that have been
illuminated, and made partakers of the
Holy Ghost, (to wit, by baptism) and are
fallen, &c. to be renewed again unto
penance," &c. viz. by a second baptism.
Q. 619. What if a man die for the
faith, before he can be baptized?
A. He is a true martyr, and baptized in
his own blood.
Q. 620. Why have we a Godfather
and a Godmother in baptism?
A. That if our parents should neglect it,
or be prevented by death, they may
instruct us in the faith of Christ, which
obligation lies on them.
Q. 621. How many godfathers may
we have?
A. But one godfather and one
godmother, since the council of Trent.
Q. 622. Why so few?
A. To prevent the too great spread of
spiritual affinity, which is contracted
between them and their godchild, and
his father and mother, which is an
impediment, that makes the marriage
not only unlawful, but also invalid
between the parties.
Q. 623. How can infants be
christened, which have no actual
faith?
A. In the faith of the Church, and of their
godfathers and godmothers.
Q. 624. Who do we use so many
ceremonies in baptism?
A. To stir up reverence to the sacrament,
and signify its inward effects.
Q. 625. What meaneth the priest's
breathing on the child's face,
according to the use of some
rituals?
A. It signifies, that by baptism, the evil
spirit is cast out, and the spirit of God is
given him.
Q. 626. Why is the child signed on
the breast and forehead with the
sign of the Cross?
A. To signify that he is there made the
servant of Christ crucified.
Q. 627. Why is salt put into the
child's mouth?
A. To signify, that by baptism he
receives grace and gifts to preserve his
soul from corruption of sin: and to warn
Christians, that their actions and words
ought to be seasoned with prudence and
discretion signified by salt.
Q. 628. Why doth the priest lay
spittle on his ears and nostrils?
A. Because Christ by so doing, healed
one that was both deaf and dumb; as
also to signify, that by baptism his ears
are opened to the word of faith, and his
nostrils to the good odour of all
Christian virtues.
Q. 629. Why doth the priest ask the
child, "If he renounce the Devil,
and his pomps?"
A. To signify, that he who will be the
child of God, cannot be the child of the
Devil.
56
Q. 630. What means the several
anointing of the child?
A. They signify the interior anointings,
or unction of divine grace, given to the
soul in baptism.
Q. 631. What mean they in
particular?
A. He anointed on the head to signify,
"that by baptism he is made partaker of
the kingly dignity of Christ;" on the
shoulders to signify, "he must bear his
Cross courageously," on the breast, to
signify, "that the heart is there
strengthened with grace, to fight against
the Devil."
Q. 632. What signifies the white
garment given to the child?
A. The purity and innocence which he
there receives.
Q. 633. What signifies the
hallowed light given to the child?
A. The light of faith, and fire of charity
with which his soul is endued by
baptism; and that he is bound to hold up
through life the lamp of good works,
always burning, always shining before
men, that they may glorify our Father
who is in Heaven.
Confirmation Expounded
Q. 634. WHAT is the second
Sacrament?
A. Confirmation.
Q. 635. When did Christ ordain
this Sacrament?
A. The time is not certain; but divines
most probably hold, it was instituted at
Christ's last supper.
Q. 636. What is the matter of the
Sacrament?
A. Oil, mingled with balm, blessed by a
bishop.
Q. 637. What is the form of it?
A. I sign thee with the sign of the Cross,
I confirm thee with the chrism of
salvation, in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.
Q. 638. What scripture have you
for this Sacrament?
A. First, 2 Cor. i. 22. "And he that
confirmeth us with you in Christ, and
hath anointed us, is God, who also hath
sealed us (with the spiritual character)
and given the pledge of the spirit in our
hearts.
Secondly, Acts viii. 14, 15, 16, where
when Philip the deacon had converted
the city of Samaria to the faith, the
apostles who were at Jerusalem, sent to
two bishops, St. Peter and St. John, to
confirm them; "who when they were
come (saith the text) prayed for them,
that they might receive the Holy Ghost;
for he was not yet come upon any of
them, but they were only baptized in the
name of our Lord Jesus; then did they
impose their hands upon them, and they
received the Holy Ghost."
Thirdly, Acts xix. 5,6, where we read that
St. Paul baptized and confirmed about
twelve of St. John's disciples: "Hearing
these things, they were baptized in the
name of our Lord Jesus; and when St.
Paul had imposed hands on them, the
Holy Ghost came upon them."
Q. 639. Why is oil used in this
Sacrament?
A. To signify that the principal and
proper effect of it, is the interior unction
of the Holy Ghost, which makes us
perfect Christians, and able to profess
our faith before persecuting tyrants.
57
Q. 640. Why is balm used in it?
A. To signify the good odour of a
Christian name, according to that, "We
are a good odour of Christ to God." 2
Cor. ii. 15.
Q. 641. In what appears the effects
of confirmation?
A. In the undaunted confidence and
sufferings of the apostles, martyrs, and
saints of God, after they had received it.
Q. 642. When were the apostles
confirmed?
A. On Whitsunday, in an extraordinary
manner, the Holy Ghost descended
upon them in tongues of fire.
Q. 643. Doth confirmation give a
character?
A. It doth, according to 2 Cor. i. 22,
above cited, where we read "who also
has sealed us," (that is, with a
character.)
Q. 644. Who is the minister of this
Sacrament?
A. A bishop only, as appears by Acts viii,
above cited, where two bishops were
sent into Samaria, to give it.
Q. 645. Is there any necessity for
this Sacrament?
A. There is a moral necessity for it,
according to the council of Laodicea,
Can. 48: "Those that have been baptized,
must after baptism receive the most holy
chrism, and be made partakers of the
heavenly kingdom."
Q. 646. What authority of fathers
and school divines have you for its
necessity?
A. First, the authority of St. Thomas,
who in the Sacrament of confirmation,
3P. Q.72, Art. 8, ad 4, affirms that it is a
dangerous thing to die without it.
Secondly, that of St. Jerome, in his
epistles against the Luciferians. "Dost
thou not know also (saith he) that this is
the custom of the churches, that hands
should be imposed on such as they have
been baptized, and so the Holy Ghost be
invocated? Dost thou require to know
where it is written? In the acts of the
apostles, and though there were no
authority of scripture for it, yet the
consent of the whole world in this
behalf, would be equal to a precept; for
many other things also which are
observed in the churches by tradition,
do usurp unto themselves the authority
of a written law." You see he owns it to
be commanded in the scripture; and tho
it were not so, yet to be equal to a
precept, and have the authority of a
written law, because it is an apostolical
tradition, that such as have been
baptized, must also be confirmed.
Q. 647. What authority of Popes
have you for it?
A. First, that of St. Clement, pope and
martyr, in his epistle to Julius, "All must
make haste, (mark the word must)
without delay to be regenerated to God,
and at length consigned (confirmed) by
a bishop; that is, to receive the same
seven-fold grace of the Holy Ghost." His
reason is, first, "Because the end of
every one's life is uncertain," secondly,
"Because otherwise he that is baptized,
cannot be a perfect Christian, nor have a
seat among the perfect; if not by
necessity, he shall remain and not have
that confirmation, which we have
received from blessed Peter, and all the
rest of the apostles have taught, or Lord
commanding," Secondly, that of Pope
Melchiades, teaching "That baptism and
confirmation can by no means be
58
separated one from another, unless by
death prevented, and that one of them
cannot rightly be perfected without the
other. And moreover, that as
confirmation is given by greater men, so
it is to be held in greater veneration than
baptism," see De Cons., Dist 5, Cap. De
his.
Add to this, that without confirmation
(according to all the fathers) we are not
perfect Christians.
Q. 648. What then would you think
of those, who for particular and
private ends, should slight this
Sacrament, and teach the laity not
to receive it, when they might
conveniently have it?
A. Truly I think they would slight the
mission of the Holy Ghost, (for this
Sacrament is a continuance of that
mission unto us) and would be great
enemies of Christianity.
Q. 649. What sin is it not to receive
it, when we may conveniently have
it?
A. Mortal sin, if it be done out of
contempt, or any gross neglect,
especially in a place of persecution.
Q. 650. How prove you that?
A. Because by so doing we expose
ourselves to great danger of denying the
faith, against which danger, it was
peculiarly ordained by Christ our Lord.
Q. 651. At what age is confirmation
now commonly received?
A. At seven years old.
Q. 652. Why not sooner?
A. That so we may be able to prepare
ourselves for it, and remember what we
have received it; for it can not be twice
given.
Q. 653. Why is a little blow given
on the cheek to him that is
confirmed?
A. To signify he is there made the soldier
of Christ, and must be ready to suffer
stripes and buffets for his sake.
Q. 654. Must we have any
godfathers in confirmation?
A. Only one godfather or godmother.
Q. 655. Must it be received fasting?
A. That is expedient, (for so the apostles
received) but not necessary.
The Eucharist Expounded
Q. 656. WHAT is the third
Sacrament?
A. The blessed Eucharist, or the
Sacrament of the body and blood of
Christ.
Q. 657. By what was this
Sacrament prefigured in the old
law?
A. By the tree of life, the burning bush,
Mechisedech's bread and wine, the
Paschal Lamb, and the heavenly manna.
Q. 658. Doth the blessed Eucharist
excel all these in dignity?
A. It doth, as far as the substantial body
excels a shadow.
Q. 659. What signifies the name
Eucharist?
A. It signifies good grace, or
thanksgiving, because it contains the
author and fountain of grace, and the
greatest gift of God to man.
Q. 660. When did Christ ordain
the blessed Eucharist?
A. At his last supper.
59
Q. 661. Why so?
A. To leave to his church, as the last and
greatest pledge of his love.
Q. 662. What is the blessed
Eucharist?
A. It is the body and blood of Jesus
Christ, true God, and true man, under
the outward forms of bread and wine.
Q. 663. In what manner is Christ
present under these forms?
A. By the true and real presence of his
divine and human nature.
Q. 664. How prove you that?
A. First out of Matt. xxvi. 27, 28. Christ
at his last supper, took bread and
blessed it, brake it and gave it to his
disciples, saying, "Take eat, this is my
body. And he blessed the cup saying,
This is my blood of the New Testament
which shall be shed for many to the
remission of sins," Mark xiv. 22, 24.
Secondly, out of Luke xxii. 19, 20. "This
is my body which is given for you, this is
the chalice of the New Testament in my
blood, which shall be shed for you."
Thirdly, out of John vi. 52, 53, 54. "The
bread which I give is my flesh, for the
life of the world; by flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed; unless
you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and
drink his blood, you shall have no life in
you."
Fourthly, out of 1 Cor. xi. 23, where St.
Paul tells us, "He received from our
Lord," (viz. by special revelation) that at
his last supper he blessed bread, saying,
"Take ye and eat, this is my body which
shall be delivered up for you; this chalice
is the New Testament in my blood."
Q. 665. By what means is the body
and blood of Christ made under
the outward forms of bread and
wine?
A. By the real conversion or change of
the whole substance of the body and
blood of Christ; which conversion is
wrought by the most holy and powerful
words of consecration, instituted by
Christ, and spoken by the priest, and is
fitly called Transubstantiation, by the
councils of Lateran and Trent; which
signifies a passage or conversion of one
substance into another.
Q. 666. Is there any scripture for
Transubstantiation?
A. The word Transubstantiation is not
found in scripture, but for the thing
signified by it, there are those places in
scripture, which prove a real presence,
because those words, This is my Body,
spoken by Christ, after he had taken
bread into his hands, and signifying that
to be his body, which before was bread,
cannot be true, without the change of
bread into his body; which change is (as
I have said already) the thing signified
or meant by Transubstantiation. Nor
may the word be lawfully rejected for
not being found in scripture more than
other words used by the church, to
explain mysteries of faith; as the word,
Trinity or Consubstantiality of God the
Son with God the Father, which are not
found in scripture.
Q. 667. What mean you by these
species or accidents which remain
after the substance of the bread is
changed?
A. The colour, taste, and quality of
bread.
60
Q. 668. Is the body of Christ
divided or broken, when we divide
or break the Sacrament?
A. It is not, for "he is now immortal and
impassible, he cannot die nor suffer any
more." Rom.vi. 9.
Q. 669. What other reason have
you?
A. Because Christ is whole in the whole
host, and whole in every particle thereof,
if you divide or break it; seeing that
wherever there would have been bread
before consecration, there must needs
be the whole body and blood of Christ
after consecration.
Q. 670. What example have you for
that?
A. The Soul of Man, which is whole in
the whole body, and whole in every part
of the body, as learned Protestants
neither do nor can deny.
Q. 671. How can the same thing be
in many several places at once?
A. By the omnipotent power of God, by
which he himself is in all, and every one
of his creatures at the same instant.
Q. 672. What example have you for
that?
A. A word, which being one, yet is in
many hundreds of places at once. Out of
Acts ix. 4, 5, where we read, that Christ,
who is always sitting at the right hand of
the Father in Heaven (as we willingly
admit with the Protestants) appeared
notwithstanding, and discoursed with
St. Paul on earth, saying, "Saul, Saul,
why dost thou persecute me?" And when
St. Paul replied, "Who art thou, Lord?
He answered, I am Jesus whom thou
dost persecute." Therefore, he was then
in two places at once.
Q. 673. What is the necessary
matter of the Eucharist?
A. Wheaten bread and wine of the grape.
Q. 674. What is the essential form
of it?
A. THIS IS MY BODY, THIS IS MY
BLOOD.
Q. 675. Why is a little water
mingled with the wine in the
chalice?
A. To signify the blood and water
flowing from the side of Christ; as also,
the union of the faithful with Christ, by
virtue of the Sacrament.
Q. 676. What dispositions is
required in him that receives the
Eucharist?
A. That he hath first confessed his sins,
and be in the state of grace.
Q. 677. How prove you that?
A. Out of 1 Cor. xi. 28. "Let a man prove
himself and so let him eat of this bread
and drink of this cup. For he that eateth
and drinketh unworthily, eateth an
drinketh damnation to himself, not
discerning the body of our Lord."
Q. 678. What are the effects of the
Eucharist?
A. It replenisheth the soul with grace,
and nourisheth it in spiritual life: "He
that eateth of this bread, shall live for
ever," John vi. 58.
Q. 679. What other benefit have we
by it?
A. It is a most moving and effectual
commemoration of the incarnation,
nativity, passion, resurrection, and
ascension of Christ.
61
Q. 680. How do you prove it lawful
for the laity, to communicate
under one kind only?
A. First, because there is no command in
scripture for the laity to do it under
both, though there be for priests in those
words, "Drink ye all of this." Matt. xxvi.
27, which was spoken to the apostles
only and by them fulfilled; for it follows
in Mark xiv. 23. "And they all drank." 2.
Out of John vi. 58, "He that eateth of
this bread, shall live for ever," therefore,
one kind sufficeth. 3. Out of Acts xx. 7,
where we read, "That the faithful were
assembled on the first of the sabbath to
break bread," without any mention of
the cup; and the two disciples in
Emmaus, "knew Christ in the breaking
of bread," where the cup is not
mentioned. And St. Paul, 1 Cor. xi. 27.
"Wherefore whosoever shall eat this
bread, or drink the chalice of the Lord
unworthily shall be guilty of the body
and blood of the Lord."
Q. 681. What is the exterior visible
sacrifice?
A. It a most necessary act of religion
whereby some sensible thing is offered
to God by a priest, in order to
acknowledge his supreme dominion
over us, and our entire dependence on
him. It is offered to God as an act of pure
adoration, or to render him thanks for
his benefits received, or to turn away his
anger, or to obtain from him some new
blessing, or for all those purposes
together.
Q. 682. Is the blessed Eucharist a
sacrifice?
A. It is a clean oblation, which the
prophet Malachy i. 11, foretold would be
offered from the rising to the going
down of the sun, in every place among
the Gentiles; which was prefigured by
Melchisedech, priest of the Most High
(Gen. xiv. 18,) when he brought forth
bread and wine; and which was, in
reality, instituted at the last supper by
Jesus Christ, when he took bread and
wine, blessed them, and distributed
them with his own hands amongst the
apostles, saying, THIS IS MY BODY;
THIS IS MY BLOOD. Christ Jesus is a
priest for ever, according to the order of
Melchisedech (Heb. v. 8,) and so he
instituted, according to his order; that is
to say, in bread and wine, this great
sacrifice of the NEW LAW.
All the Holy Popes, and Fathers, and
Councils of the primitive ages, teach that
the mass is the self same sacrifice of
bread and wine that had been instituted
by our Saviour; whilst the histories and
annals of all countries, not excepting
England herself, declare that the Holy
Mass, but no other sacrifice, came down
to them as a part and parcel of
Christianity, from the apostolic age.
Q. 683. Why are the priests obliged
to receive under both kinds?
A. Because they offer sacrifice, and
represent the bloody sacrifice made
upon the cross, where the blood was
actually divided from the body, and
being offerers of the sacrifice, are bound
to receive also the cup, by Christ's
command expressed. Matt. xxvi. 27.
"Drink ye all of this."
Q. 684. Did the laity ever
communicate under both kinds?
A. They did sometimes in the primitive
church, and may again, if holy church
shall so appoint; but now it is prohibited
by the church, to prevent the great
danger of shedding the cup, neither are
the laity in this defrauded of any thing;
for they receive whole Christ under one
kind, which is incomparably more than
62
the pretended reformers have under
both, who receive only a bit of baker's
bread, with a cup of common vintner's
wine. See "Holy Order expounded." See
also, "The Mass expounded." eh. 22.
Penance Expounded
Q. 685. WHAT is the fourth
Sacrament?
A. Penance.
Q. 686. What warrant have you for
doing acts of penance?
A. First, out of Apoc. ii. 4. "Thou hast
left thy first charity, therefore be
mindful from whence thou art fallen,
and do penance?"
Secondly, "And JESUS began to preach,
and say, do ye penance; for the kingdom
of heaven is at hand." Matt. iv. 17.
Q. 687. When did Christ ordain
this Sacrament?
A. When he breathed on his disciples,
saying, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost,
whose sins ye shall forgive, they are
forgiven and whose sins ye shall retain,
they are retained." John xx. 22, 23.
Q. 688. What is the matter of this
Sacrament?
A. The sins and confession of the
penitent.
Q. 689. What is the form of it?
A. I absolve thee from they sins, in the
name of the Father, and of the Son, and
of the Holy Ghost.
Q. 690. What are the effects of it?
A. It reconciles us to God, and either
restores or increases grace?
Q. 691. How prove you that?
A. Out of John xx. 23, before cited. And
out of John i. 9. "If we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our
sins, and cleanse us from all iniquity."
Q. 692. How many parts hath the
Sacrament of penance?
A. It hath three parts; namely,
contrition, confession, and satisfaction.
Q. 693. What is contrition?
A. It is a hearty sorrow for our sins,
proceeding immediately from the love of
God above all things, and joined with a
firm purpose of amendment.
Q. 694. What is attrition?
A. It is imperfect contrition, arising from
the consideration of the turpitude of sin,
or fear of punishment and if it contain a
detestation of sin, and hope of pardon, it
is so far from being itself wicked, that
though alone it justify not, yet it
prepares the way to justification; and
disposes it at least remotely towards
obtaining God's grace in this Sacrament.
Q. 695. What if a dying man be in
mortal sin, and cannot have a
priest.
A. Then nothing but perfect contrition
will suffice, it being impossible to be
saved, without the love of God.
Q. 696. What is a firm purpose of
amendment?
A. It is a resolution not only to shun sin,
but also the occasions of it.
Q. 697. How long has confession
been in use and practice?
A. Ever since the Apostle's time,
according to James, v. 16. "Confess
therefore your sins to one another, and
63
pray for one another, that you may be
saved." And Acts xix. 18. "Many of them
that believed came confessing and
declaring their deeds."
Q. 698. What is confession?
A. It is a full, sincere, and humble
declaration of our sins to a priest, to
obtain absolution.
Q. 699. Is there any special good or
comfort to man from confession?
A. Very great, because as to a mind
laden with secret griefs, the best of
comforts is to disclose her case to some
faithful friend; so to a soul laded with
secret sins one of the greatest comforts,
and best remedies possible, is to have
selected persons ordained for that end
by Christ himself, men of singular piety
and learning, and not questionable by
any law of what they hear in confession,
to whom one may confess his sins, with
an assurance both of comfort,
correction, and direction for the
amendment of his faults.
Q. 700. What are the necessary
conditions of a good confession?
A. That it be short, diligent, humble,
sorrowful, sincere, and entire.
Q. 701. How, short?
A. By avoiding superfluous words and
circumlocutions.
Q. 702. How, diligent?
A. By using a competent time and care
in the examining of our conscience.
Q. 703. How, humble?
A. By making our confession with
humble hearts.
Q. 704. How, sorrowful?
A. By stirring up sorrow for our sins.
Q. 705. How, sincere?
A. By confessing our sins plainly,
without seeking to lessen or excuse
them.
Q. 706. How, entire?
A. By confessing not only in what things
we have sinned mortally, but also how
often, as near as we are able to
remember.
Q. 707. What if a man do
knowingly leave out any mortal sin
in his confession for fear of
shame?
A. He makes his whole confession void,
and commits a great sacrilege by lying to
the Holy Ghost, and abusing the
Sacrament.
Q. 708. How prove you that?
A. By the example of Ananias and his
wife Saphna, who were struck dead at
the feet of St. Peter, for daring to lie to
the Holy Ghost. Acts v. 5, 10.
Q. 709. Is he that hath so done
bound to confess all again?
A. Yes, all that are mortal, together with
that which he left out, and the sacrilege
he committed.
Q. 710. What is satisfaction?
A. The sacramental penance, enjoined
us by the priest at confession, (which is
considered a part of this sacrament,)
besides which we may also add more, for
our own sins, by our voluntary prayers,
fasting, or other good works, or
sufferings.
64
Q. 711. For what do we satisfy by
that penance?
A. For such temporal punishments as
remain due sometimes for our sins, after
they are forgiven us.
Q. 712. How do you prove that
priests have power to impose
penance?
A. Out of 1 Cor. vi. 3, where St. Paul
excommunicated the incestuous
Corinthian; "I (saith he) absent in body,
but present in spirit, have already
judged him that hath so done, &c. to
deliver such a one to Satan for the
destruction of the flesh, that the soul
may be saved." ver. 5.
Q. 713. How prove you that
temporal punishments may
remain due for our sins, after the
sins themselves be forgiven us?
A. First, because Adam, after his sin was
forgiven him, was notwithstanding cast
out of paradise for ever, and his whole
posterity made subject unto death and
many miseries, in punishment of that
sin. Gen. iii. 25.
Secondly, because David, after his sin of
adultery was forgiven him, was
temporally punished for it with the
death of his child: "Our Lord (saith
Nathan) hath taken away thy sin,
nevertheless thy son shall die." 2 Kings
xii. 13, 14.
Thirdly, because "Whom our Lord loveth
he chastiseth." Heb. xii. 6.
Q. 714. By what other means are
those temporal punishments
released?
A. By indulgences.
Q. 715. What is an indulgence?
A. No a pardon for sins to come, or leave
to commit sin, (as Protestants do falsely
and slanderously teach) but a releasing
only of such temporal punishments, as
remain due to those sins, which have
already been forgiven us by penance and
confession.
Q. 716. How doth an indulgence
release those punishments?
A. By the superabundant merits of
Christ and his saints, which it applies to
our souls by the special grant of the
church.
Q. 717. When did Christ give his
church power to grant
indulgences?
A. When he said to St. Peter, "To thee
will I give the keys of the kingdom of
Heaven, whatsoever thou shalt bind on
earth, it shall be bound in Heaven, and
whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth,
shall be loosed in Heaven." Matt. xvi. 19.
Q. 718. How prove you that the
apostles did ever use this power?
A. Out of 2 Cor. ii. 10, where St. Paul
remitted part of the Corinthians
penance. "To him that is such a one
(said he) this rebuke sufficeth, &c.
whom you have pardoned any thing, I
also pardon."
Q. 719. What is required for the
gaining an indulgence"
A. That we perform the works enjoined
us, and that the last part of them be
done in a state of grace.
Q. 720. What are those works?
A. Fasting, prayer, and alms deeds; as
also confession and communion.
65
Extreme Unction Expounded
Q. 721. WHAT is the fifth
Sacrament?
A. Extreme unction.1
Q. 722. When did Christ institute
it?
A. The time is uncertain: some think it
was instituted at his last supper; others
that it was done between his
resurrection and ascension.
Q. 723. By whom was this
sacrament promulgated?
A. By James, v. 13, 14, 15. "Is any man
sick among you, let him bring in the
priests of the church, and let them pray
over him, anointing him with oil, in the
name of our Lord, and the prayer of
faith shall save the sick man, and our
1 Unction is twofold, exterior and interior; by the
former is the body anointed, and the latter the
soul: there is an instance of the former in James
v. 14, and of the latter in the parable of the ten
virgins, Matt. xxv. The exterior anointing of the
body is expressive of the interior unction or
invisible grace produced in the soul. Under the
Old Law were the priests, prophets and kings
anointed: 1 Kings ix. 16; 2 Kings ii. 4; and 3
Kings xix. 15. Our Blessed Redeemer is called the
Anointed, from the Greek verb Krio which
signifies to anoint, because God anointed hem
with the Holy Ghost: Acts x. 38. And we are
called Christians because we profess the law and
doctrine of God, the Anointed; and because we
are anointed with holy oil and chrism. The child
is anointed at baptism, the priest in receiving
Holy Orders, the king and queen at their
coronation. That the Apostles anointed the sick
is clear from Mark vi. 13, and that they taught
the practice is clear from James v. 14. Would
they teach or practise the rite if they had not
commission from their Divine Master so to do?
It is indeed extremely astonishing that the
Protestants who pretend to be enamoured with
the Bible would discard a rite so sanctioned in
both Testaments and the usage of all antiquity.
See Canons. Lib. i. cit. 15.
Lord will lift him up, and if he be in sin
his sins shall be forgiven him."
Q. 724. Who is capable of this
sacrament?
A. Every true and faithful Christian who
is in mortal danger of death by sickness,
excepting infants, fools, and such as are
always mad.
Q. 725. What is the matter of it?
A. Oil blessed by a bishop.
Q. 726. What is the form of it?
A. "By his own anointing, and his own
most pious mercy, our Lord pardon
thee, whatsoever thou hast sinned by thy
seeing," & c. And so of the other senses,
repeating the same words.
Q. 727. What are the effects of
extreme unction?
A. It comforts the soul in her last agony
against despair, it remits venial sins and
removes the relics of sin and restores
corporal health, if it be expedient.
Q. 728. How prove you that?
A. Out of Mark vi. 13, where we read,
That the apostles anointed with oil many
sick, and healed them. Which anointing
is understood by many to have been a
previous sign of extreme unction, and
consequently of its effects.
Q. 729. Why then do so few recover
after it?
A. Either because the recovery of the
body is not expedient for the soul, or
because the sick deferred the sacrament
too long, as too many do, or for the other
indispositions in the receiver of it
66
Holy Order Expounded
Q. 730. WHAT is the sixth
Sacrament?
A. Holy Order.
Q. 731. To whom doth this
appertain?
A. To the rulers and ministers of the
church, as bishops, priests, deacons, and
subdeacons.
Q. 732. What proof have you for
bishops, priests and deacons?
A. For bishops and deacons, out of Phil,
i. 1. "To all the saints at Philippi, (saith
St. Paul) with the bishops and deacons,"
and for the priests out of St. James
above cited. "Is any man sick among
you, let him bring in the priests of the
church." &c.
Q. 733. Where did Christ ordain
this Sacrament?
A. At his last supper, where he made his
Apostles priests, saying, "This is my
body which is given for you; do ye this in
commemoration of me." Luke xxii. 19.
Q. 734. What did Christ give them
power to do?
A. To offer the unbloody sacrifice of his
own body and blood, which he himself
had there ordained, and offered under
the outward forms of bread and wine.
Q. 735. Why did he say, Do ye this
in commemoration of me?
A. Because the unbloody sacrifice of the
Mass is a commemoration or memorial
of the unbloody sacrifice made on the
Cross; nay more, it is a renewal of it in
an unbloody manner.
Q. 736. What are the effects of holy
order?
A. It gives spiritual power, to ordain
priests, to consecrate the body and
blood of Christ, to administer the
sacraments, serve the altar, and to
preach.
Q. 737. What else?
A. It gives also a spiritual grace, for the
well-doing of these offices.
Q. 738. How prove you that?
A. Out of 1 Tim. iv. 14. "Neglect not the
grace which is thine by prophecy, with
the imposition of the hands of the
priesthood."
Q. 739. What is the proper office of
a bishop?
A. To give holy orders and confirmation,
to preach and govern the church.
Q. 740. How prove you that?
A. To confirm, out of Acts viii. above
cited, where we read, "Two bishops were
sent to confirm the Samaritans."
Q. 741. How prove you that the
bishops are of divine right and
have authority from God to rule
the church?
A. Out of Acts xx. 28. "Take heed unto
yourselves and to the whole flock,
wherein the Holy Ghost hath made you
bishops to rule the church of God."
Q. 742. How prove you that the
bishops only can ordain priests?
A. Out of Titus i. 5. "For this cause left I
thee in Crete, that thou shouldest order
the things that were wanting, and ordain
priests in every city," (he was a bishop.)
67
Q. 743. What sin is it therefore to
oppose Hierarchy and Episcopacy
either in the whole church, or in
particular churches?
A. It is a sin of rebellion and high
treason against the peace and safety of
Christ's spiritual commonwealth, the
church.
Q. 744. How prove you that?
A. Because no law can subsist without
guards and officers for it. Since
therefore Christ hath ordained bishops
to be the guards and teachers of his law,
they who strike at bishops, strike also at
the whole law of Christ, and safety of the
people.
Q. 745. Why is it requisite that
bishops and pastors should have
revenues?
A. Because they bear a considerable
charge and office in the commonwealth,
therefore, they ought to have a
competence for the performance of it.
Secondly, to enable them, as good
soldiers of Christ Jesus, to keep clear of
worldly cares: for "no man, being a
soldier to God, entangleth himself with
worldly business; that he may please
him to whom he hath engaged himself."
2 Tim. ii. 4.
Q. 746. What is the office of a
priest?
A. To offer sacrifice, and administer the
rest of the sacraments, excepting holy
order and confirmation.
Q. 747. How prove you a sacrifice
in the New Law?
A. First, because there is a priesthood, as
you have heard, and an altar according
to that, "We have an altar (saith St. Paul)
whereof they have not power to eat, who
serve in the tabernacle." Heb. xiii. 10.
Secondly, out of Mai. i. 11, where he
foretold the sacrifice in the new law,
saying, "From the rising of the sun, even
to the going down, great is my name
among the Gentiles, and in every place
there is sacrificing, and there is offered
to my name a clean oblation, saith the
Lord of Hosts."
Thirdly, out of Luke xxii. 19, 20, where
Christ who is high priest for ever
(according to the order of
Melchesedech) offered the sacrifice of
his own body and blood under the form
of bread and wine, saying, "This is my
body which is given for you, (it is given
for us, you find at his last supper) this is
the chalice of the New Testament in my
blood, which chalice (according to the
great text) is shed for you."
Q. 748. Is it lawful for priests to
marry?
A. It is not; there being a precept of the
church against it, descending to us by
tradition from the Apostles; neither did
any of the Apostles ever accompany
their wives, after their calling to the
apostleship; and a vow of perpetual
chastity being annexed to the holy
orders, in the Latin or Western church.
Q. 749. Why is it requisite that
priests should live chaste and
unmarried?
A. Because, as by their ordination they
are bound to teach and instruct the
faithful, their minds should be totally
disengaged from the cares and pleasures
of the world, and wholly employed in the
study and piety of heavenly things,
which is incompatible with the marriage
state. 1 Cor. vii. 32.
68
Q. 750. What are the lesser orders
of the church?
A. Acolyte, lector, exorcist, and porter,
according to the fourth council of
Carthage, can. 6.
Q. 751. Is it lawful for women to
preach, or to be priests?
A. It is not, according to 1 Cor. xiv. 34.
"Let women keep silence in the
churches: for it is not permitted to them
to speak, but to the subject, as also the
lawsaith."
Q. 752. It is lawful for a man to
usurp and take upon him priestly
power, without the ordination of
the church?
A. It is not, according to Heb. v. 1, 4.
"For every high priest taken from among
men, is appointed for men &c. that he
may offer gifts and sacrifices for sins
neither doth any man take the honour to
himself, but he that is called of God, as
was Aaron.
Q. 753. What other proof have
you?
A. Out of John x. 1. "Amen I say unto
you, he that entereth not by the door
(Holy Order) into the fold of the sheep,
but climbs up another way, is a thief and
a robber."
Q. 754. What if any man pretend
an extraordinary calling?
A. He must prove it by miracles, or else
be esteemed an impostor.
Q. 755. What examples have you
against the usurpation of the
priestly power?
A. That the king Ozeas, who was
presently struck by God with a leprosy in
his forehead, for usurping the priestly
office of offering or burning incense in
the temple. 2 Paral. xxvi. 19.
Q. 756. What besides?
A. The example of Core, Dathan, and
Abriam, who for usurping the office of
priest, (though they were themselves
true believers) were swallowed up alive
by the earth, Numb. xvi. 32. and two
hundred and fifty others who were
offering incense with them, were
consumed with fire from heaven, v. 34,
with fourteen thousand and seven
hundred more, which were also burnt
with fire from heaven, for only joining
with them, v. 49.
Matrimony Expounded
Q. 757. WHAT is the seventh
Sacrament?
A. Matrimony.
Q. 758. Where was matrimony first
ordained?
A. In paradise by Almighty God, when
he gave Eve as wife to Adam, who
presently said, "Therefore a man shall
leaven his father and his mother, and
shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall
be two in one flesh." Gen. ii. 22, 24.
Q. 759. Where was it made a
sacrament of the new law?
A. Where and when Christ instituted
this sacrament us uncertain; some think
it done, or at least insinuated at the
wedding at Cana in Galilee, where Christ
was present, and wrought his first
miracle, "by turning water into wine."
John ii. Others, more probably, say it
was done, when Christ declared the
indissolubility of marriage, saying,
"therefore now they are not two, but one
flesh: that therefore which God hath
joined together, let no man separate."
Matt. xix. 6.
69
Q. 760. Why was it requisite that
marriage should be made a
sacrament?
A. Because it is a contract whereon
depends the chief happiness of a
married life; as being ordained for the
restraint of sinful concupiscence, the
good of posterity, the well ordering our
domestic affairs, and the education of
our children in the fear and service of
God, and therefore ought to be ranked in
the highest order of those actions, which
Christ hath sanctioned for the use of
man.
Q. 761. What other proof have you?
A. Out of Ephes. v. 31, 32. "They shall be
two in one flesh; this is the great
sacrament. But I speak in Christ, and in
the church."
Q. 762. What is the matter of this
sacrament?
A. The mutual consent of the parties,
and giving themselves to one another.
Q. 763. What are the effects of
matrimony?
A. It gives special grace to the married
couple, to love and bear on with another,
as also to bring up their children in the
fear and love of God.
Q. 764. What is the principle end
of marriage?
A. To beget children, and bring them up
in the service of God; and the next to
this is, that man may have a remedy
against concupiscence, and a helper in
the way of salvation.
Q. 765. How great is the tie of
marriage?
A. So great that it can never be dissolved
but by death, as you have heard out of
Matt. xix.
Q. 766. What are the obligations of
man and wife?
A. To love, honour, and comfort one
another.
Q. 767. What besides?
A. Husbands are obliged to cherish and
comfort their wives; wives to be subject,
obey, and love their husbands.
Q. 768. How prove you that?
A. Out of Col. iii. 18, 19. "Women be
subject to your own husbands, as
behooveth in our Lord. Men, love your
wives, and be not bitter towards them."
And out of Ephes. iv. 22, 23. "Let women
be subject to their husbands, as to the
Lord, because the man is head of the
woman as Christ is head of the church,"
v. 24. "But as the Church is subject to
Christ, so also women to their husbands
in all things." And again, v. 33. "Let each
man love his wife as himself, and let the
wife reverence her husband.
Q. 769. What else?
A. To render mutually the marriage
debt, and according to that, "Let the
husband render his debt unto his wife,
and the wife also in like manner to her
husband. The women now hath no
power of her own body, but the
husband, and in like manner the man
hath no power of his own body, but the
woman." 1 Cor. vii. 3, 4.
Q. 770. It is lawful for children to
marry without the consent of their
parents?
A. It is not; neither is it lawful for
parents to force them to marry against
their will.
70
Q. 771. Why are so many unhappy
in their marriages?
A. Because they never consulted with
God about them, nor sought to have his
blessing in them.
Q. 772. For what other reason?
A. Because they were in the state of sin
at their marriage, or married for
inordinate love or wealth, and not for
the right end of marriage.
Q. 773. What meaneth the blessing
of the priest given in marriage?
A. It is to beg all blessings of God for the
new married couple.
Q. 774. Why is the ring put on the
fourth finger?
A. Because that is called the heart finger
and hath (they say) a vein in it, with
reacheth to the heart; so to signify the
true and constant love which ought to be
between man and wife.
Q. 775. What signifies the ring
itself?
A. It is a symbol of perfection and
eternity, being equal in all parts, and
round in figure, without beginning or
end, to imitate the perfect and perpetual
love of man and wife.
Q. 776. What are the spiritual
means to obtain the blessing of
good children?
A. Fasting, prayer, and alms-deeds, for
so St. Joachim and St. Anne obtained
Blessed Virgin Mary; and so the Blessed
Virgin became the mother of God.
Q. 777. What obligations have
parents to their children?
A. To instruct them in the faith of Christ,
to bring them up in the fear of God, to
give them good example, to keep them
out of ill company and other occasions
of sin, to feed and nourish them, to
provide for them in marriage, and to
correct their faults.
Q. 778. What are the chief and
most common impediments of
marriage?
A. Consanguinity and affinity, to the
fourth degree inclusively; and in the
right line all degrees are prohibited by
the law of nature, indispensable.
Q. 779. Can the church dispense in
these collateral degrees?
A. She can, excepting only the first
collateral degrees of consanguinity, but
always sufficient motives must be given.
Q. 780. How prove you that?
A. The Church having made these laws,
for just reasons may dispense in them;
but when such dispensations are given,
those who seek them ought to consider,
that they may deprive themselves of the
blessings attending the marriage state, if
the motives alleged be not well founded.
71
Chapter 12.
The Cardinal Virtues Expounded
Q. 781. HOW many cardinal
virtues are there?
A. There are four: prudence, justice,
fortitude, and temperance.
Q. 782. Why are they called
cardinal virtues?
A. Because they are the fountains and as
it were the hinges of all good works,
from the word Cardo, which signifies a
hinge.
Q. 783. What is prudence?
A. It is a virtue which makes us wary in
all our actions, that we may neither
deceive others, nor be deceived
ourselves; or which (according to the
rule of honesty) prescribes us what to be
desired, and what to be avoided.
Q. 784. How prove you that?
A. Out of Eccles. iii. 32. "A wise heart
that hath understanding, will keep itself
from all sin, and in the works of justice
shall have success."
Q. 785. What is justice?
A. It is a virtue which gives every man
this own according to that, "Render to
all men their due, to whom tribute,
tribute; to whom custom, custom; to
whom fear, fear; to whom honour,
honour." Rom. xiii. 7.
Q. 786. What is temperance?
A. It is a virtue which moderates our
appetites and desires, that they be
according to reason, and not inordinate:
"He that is abstinate, (saith the wise
man) shall increase in life." Eccl. xxxvii.
Q. 787. What is fortitude?
A. It is a virtue, by which the labours
and dangers even of death itself, that are
opposite unto virtue, are courageously
undertaken and patiently sustained,
"The wicked fleeth (saith Soloman)
when no man pursueth; but the just
man, as a confident lion, shall be
without fear." Prov. xxvii. 1. And in 1 Pet.
iii. 14, we read, "The fear of them fear ye
not, and be not troubled, but sanctify
our Lord Christ in your hearts."
Q. 788. Is it necessary for a
Christian to be exercised in these
virtues?
A. It is; for "we must not only decline
from evil, but do good," Psalm xxxvi. 27.
Chapter 13.
The Gifts of the Holy Ghost Expounded
Q. 789. HOW many are the Gifts of
the Holy Ghost?
A. Seven: wisdom, understanding,
counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety, and
the fear of the Lord. Isa. xi. 2.
72
Q. 790. What is wisdom?
A. It is a gift of God, which teacheth us
to direct our whole lives and actions to
his honour, and the salvation of our
souls.
Q. 791. What is understanding?
A. It is a gift of God, by which we are
enabled to comprehend the high
mysteries of our Faith.
Q. 792. What is counsel?
A. It is a gift of God, by which we
discover the frauds and deceits of the
Devil, and are not deceived by him.
Q. 793. What is fortitude?
A. It is a gift of God, whereby we are
enabled to undergo and despise all
dangers for his sake.
Q. 794. What is knowledge?
A. It is a gift of God, by which we know
and understand the will of God.
Q. 795. What is piety?
A. It is a gift of God, which makes us
devout and zealous in his service.
Q. 796. What is the fear of the
Lord?
A. It is the gift of God, which curbs our
rashness, withholds us from sin, and
makes us obedient to God's law.
Chapter 14.
The Twelve Fruits of the Holy Ghost Expounded
Q. 797. HOW many are the fruits of
the Holy Ghost?
A. There are twelve, as you may see, Gal.
v. 22, 23.
Q. 798. What is the first?
A. Charity, whose nature and effects you
know already.
Q. 799. What is the second?
A. Joy, by which we are enabled to serve
God with cheerful hearts.
Q. 800. What is the third?
A. Peace, which keeps us unmoved in
our minds amidst the storms and
tempests of the world.
Q. 801. What is the fourth?
A. Patience, which enables us to suffer
all adversities for the love of God.
Q. 802. What is the fifth?
A. Longanimity, which is an untired
confidence of mind, in expecting the
good things of the life to come.
Q. 803. What is the sixth?
A. Goodness, which makes us hurt no
man, and be good to all.
Q. 804. What is the seventh?
A. Benignity, which causeth an affable
sweetness in our manners and
conversation.
73
Q. 805. What is the eighth?
A. Mildness, which allays in us all the
[ejmotions of passion and anger.
Q. 806. What is the ninth?
A. Fidelity, which makes us punctual
observers of our covenants and
promises.
Q. 807. What is the tenth?
A. Modesty, which observes a becoming
deportment in all our outward actions.
Q. 808. What is the eleventh?
A. Continency, which makes us not only
abstemious in meat and drink, but in all
other sensible delights.
Q. 809. What is the twelfth?
A. Chastity, which keeps a pure soul in a
pure body.
Q. 810. Who are they that have
these fruits?
A. The children of God only; for
"whosoever are led by the spirit of God,
they are the sons of God." Rom. viii. 14.
Chapter 15.
The Works of Mercy (corporal and spiritual) Expounded
Q. 811. HOW many are the
corporal works of mercy?
A. Seven, l. To feed the hungry. 2. To
give drink to the thirsty. 3. To clothe the
naked. 4. To harbour the harbourless. 5.
To visit the sick. 6. To visit the
imprisoned. 7. To bury the dead.
Q. 812. How prove you that these
works are meritorious of a
reward?
A. Because Christ hath promised the
kingdom of Heaven as the reward of
them. "Come, O ye blessed of my Father
(saith he) and possess ye the kingdom,
&c. for I was hungry, and ye gave me to
eat," & c. Matt. xxv. 35, 36.
Q. 813. When are we said to feed
and clothe Christ?
A. As often as we feed and clothe the
poor, "What ye have done (saith he) to
one of my little ones, that ye have done
unto me." ver. 40.
Q. 814. Is the reward of these
works a reward of justice?
A. It is; according to 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. "I
have fought a good fight (saith Paul)
there is a crown of justice laid up for me,
which our Lord will render to me at that
day as the just judge."
Q. 815. What other proof have
you?
A. Out of Heb. vi. 10. "For God is not
unjust, that he should forget the work
and love, which you have shown in his
name, who have ministered unto the
Saints, and do minister.
74
Q. 816. How many are the works of
mercy, spiritual?
A. Seven also. 1. To give counsel to the
doubtful. 2. To instruct the ignorant. 3.
To admonish the sinners. 4. To comfort
the afflicted. 5. To forgive offences. 6. To
bear patiently the troublesome. 7. To
pray for the quick and the dead.
Q. 817. How prove you your prayer
for the dead?
A. First, out of the places before and
after cited for purgatory. Secondly, out
of 1 John v. 16. "He that knoweth his
brother to sin a sin not unto death, let
him ask, and life shall be given him, not
sinning to death; (i.e.) to final
impenitence. Therefore it is lawful to
pray for all such as die penitent,
confessing their sins." And in 2 Mac. xii.
we read, "It is a wholesome and holy
thought to pray for the dead, that they
may be loosed from their sins."
Q. 818. How show you these works
to be meritorious?
A. Out of Dan. xii. 3. "They who instruct
others to justice, shall shine as stars to
all eternity."
Chapter 16.
The Eight Beatitudes
Q. 819. WHAT are the eight
Beatitudes?
A. Christ "opening his mouth he taught
them, saying: 1. Blessed are the poor in
spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. 2. Blessed are the meek, for they
shall possess the land. 3. Blessed are
they that mourn: for they shall be
comforted. 4. Blessed are they that
hunger and thirst after justice: for they
shall be filled. 5. Blessed are the
merciful: for they shall obtain mercy. 6.
Blessed are the clean of heart: for they
shall see God. 7. Blessed are the peace-
makers: for they shall be called the
children of God. 8. Blessed are they that
suffer persecution for justice sake: for
theirs is the Kingdom of heaven." Matt.
v. 3, 10.
Q. 820. Whence ariseth the
necessity of suffering persecution?
A. Because all that will live piously in
Jesus Christ shall suffer persecution. 2
Tim. iii. 12.
Chapter 17.
The Kinds of Sin Expounded
Q. 821. WHY is it necessary for a
Christian to know the nature and
kinds of sin?
A. That so he may detest and avoid
them.
75
Q. 822. How many kinds of sins
are there?
A. Two, namely, Original and Actual.
Q. 823. What is original sin?
A. It is a privation of original justice,
which we inherit from our first parent
Adam, being all by course of nature,
conceived and born in that privation or
original sin.
Q. 824. How prove you that?
A. Out of Rom. v. 12. "Therefore as by
one man sin entered into the world, and
by sin death, and so unto all men death
did pass, in whom all have sinned."
Q. 825. What are the effects of
original sin?
A. Concupiscence, ignorance, evil
inclination, proneness to sin, sickness,
and death.
Q. 826. How is original sin taken
away?
A. By holy baptism.
Q. 827. Whither go infants that die
without baptism?
A. To a part of hell, where they endure
the pain of loss, but not of sense, and
shall never see the face of God.
Q. 828. How prove you that?
A. Out of John iii. 5. "Unless a man be
born again of water, and the Holy Ghost,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of
God."
Q. 829. What is actual sin?
A. It is a thought, word or deed, contrary
to the law of God.
Q. 830. What is the sin of
omission?
A. To omit any thing willing, which is
commanded by God or his Church.
Q. 831. Why is actual sin so called?
A. Because the material part of it is
commonly some voluntary acts of ours.
Q. 832. Is all sin voluntary and
deliberate?
A. It is, because (speaking of actual sin)
no man sinneth in doing that which is
not in his power to avoid.
Q. 833. What other proof have
you?
A. Because the whole gospel of Christ is
nothing else but an exhortation to do
good, and avoid evil, than which nothing
were more vain, if it be not the free
election and power of man, assisted by
God's grace, to do, or not to do such
things.
Q. 834. What scripture have you
for that?
A. First out of Gen. iv. 7. "If thou dost
well, shalt thou not receive? But if ill,
shall not thy sin be forthwith present at
the door? But the lust thereof shall be
under thee, and thou shalt have
dominion over it."
Secondly out of Deut. xxx. 19, 20. "I call
heaven and earth to witness this day,
that I have proposed to thee life and
death, blessing and cursing, choose
therefore life that thou mayest live."
Thirdly, out of 1 Cor. vii. 37. "He that
hath determined in his heart being
settled not having necessity but having
the power of his own will, and hath
judged in his heart to keep his virginity,
doth well;" (you see man hath power of
his own will) and in Phil. iv. 13. "I can do
all things (saith Paul) in him who
strengtheneth me."
76
Q. 835. Doth not the efficacy of
God's grace hinder, and hurt the
freedom of our will?
A. No, it perfects it according to 1 Cor.
xv. 10, 11. "I have laboured more
abundantly (saith Paul) than all they, yet
not I, but the grace of God within me."
You hear the grace of God did not
hinder, but perfect his working.
Q. 836. How is actual sin divided?
A. Into mortal and venial.
Q. 837. What is mortal sin?
A. And great offence against the love of
God; and is so called because it kills the
soul, and robs it of the spiritual life of
grace.
Q. 838. What is venial sin?
A. A small, and very pardonable offence
against God, or our neighbour.
Q. 839. How prove you that some
sins are mortal?
A. First, out of Rom. vi. 23. "For the
wages of sin is death." And ver. xxi.
"What fruit therefore had you then in
these things, for which ye are now
ashamed, for the end of them is death?"
Secondly, out of Wis. xvi. 14. "For man
by malice, killeth his own soul." And out
of Ezek. xviii. 4. "The soul that sinneth,
the same shall die."
Q. 840. How prove you that some
sins are venial?
A. First, out of 1 John i. 8, where
speaking of such as walk in the light,
and are cleansed from all mortal sin by
the blood of Christ, he adds, "if we stay
we have no sin, we seduce ourselves, and
the truth is not in us."
Secondly, "In many things we all
offend," James iii 2. And in Prov. xxiv.
16. "The just man falleth seven times."
Not mortally, for then he were no longer
just, therefore venially.
Thirdly, out of Matt. xii. 36. "But I say
unto you, every idle word which men
shall speak, they shall render an account
for it at the day of judgment." Now God
forbid every idle word should be a
mortal sin.
Q. 841. What are the effects of
venial sin?
A. It doth not rob the soul of life, as
mortal sin doth, but only weakeneth the
fervour of charity, and by degrees
disposeth unto mortal.
Q. 842. Why are we bound to shun
not only mortal, but venial sins?
A. Because "he that contemneth small
things, shall fall by little and little."
Eccles. xix. 1.
Q. 843. What other proof have
you?
A. Because "no polluted thing shall enter
into the heavenly Jerusalem." Apoc. xxi.
27, be it polluted with mortal, or venial
sin.
Q. 844. How shall we be able to
know when any sin is mortal, and
when but venial?
A. Because to any mortal sin it is
required, both that it be deliberate, and
perfectly voluntary; and that it be a
matter of weight against the law of God;
one or both of which conditions are
always wanting in a venial sin.
Q. 845. How is mortal sin
remitted?
A. By hearty penance and contrition.
77
Q. 846. How is venial sin remitted?
A. By all the sacraments, by holy water,
devout prayer, alms-deeds, and the like
good works.
Q. 847. Whither go such as die in
venial sin, or not having fully
satisfied for the temporal
punishments due to their mortal
sins which are forgiven them?
A. To purgatory till they have made full
satisfaction for them, and then to
heaven.
Q. 848. How prove you there is a
purgatory, or a place of
punishment, where souls are
purged after death?
Out of 1 Pet. iii. 10. "Christ being dead
for our sins, came in spirit, and
preached to them also that were in
prison, who had been incredulous in the
days of Noah, when the Ark was
building."
Q. 849. What other proof have
you?
A. Out of 1 Cor. iii. 13. "The work of
every man shall be manifest, for the day
of our Lord will declare it, because it
shall be revealed in fire; and the work of
every one of what kind it is, the fire shall
try; If a man's work abides," (as theirs
doth who deserve no purgatory) he shall
suffer loss, but himself shall be saved,
yet so as by fire."
Q. 850. What besides?
A. Out of Matt. v. 25. "Be thou at
agreement with thy adversary betimes
whilst thou art in the way with him (that
is in this life) lest perhaps the adversary
deliver thee to the judge, and the judge
deliver thee to the officer, and thou be
cast into prison (Purgatory): Amen, I say
unto thee, thou shalt not go out from
thence, till thou pay the last farthing."
Q. 851. What other yet?
A. Out of Matt. xii. 32. "Some sins shall
neither be forgiven in this world, nor in
the world to come." Therefore there is a
place of purging and pardoning sins
after this life.
Q. 852. How is a man made guilty,
or said to co-operate to other
men's sins?
A. As often as he is an actual cause of sin
in others by any of these nine means: 1.
By counsel. 2. By command. 3. By
consent. 4. By provocation. 5. By praise
or flattery. 6. By silence. 7. By
connivance. 8. By participation; or 9. By
defence of the ill done.
Chapter 18.
The Seven Deadly Sins Expounded
Q. 853. HOW call you the seven
deadly, or capital sins?
A. Pride, covetousness, lechery, anger,
gluttony, envy, and sloth.
Pride Expounded
Q. 854. What is pride?
A. It is an inordinate desire of our own
excellency or esteem.
78
Q. 855. Why is pride called a
capital sin?
A. Because it is the head or fountain of
many other sins.
Q. 856. What for example?
A. Vain-glory, boasting, hypocrisy,
ambition, arrogance, presumption, and
contempt of others.
Q. 857. What is vain-glory?
A. And inordinate desire of human
praise.
Q. 858. What is boasting?
A. A foolish bragging of ourselves.
Q. 859. What is hypocrisy?
A. Counterfeiting of more piety and
virtue than we have.
Q. 860. What is ambition?
A. An inordinate desire of honour.
Q. 861. What is arrogance?
A. A high contempt of others, joined
with insolence and rashness.
Q. 862. What is presumption?
A. An attempting of things above our
strength.
Q. 863. What is contempt of
others?
A. A disdainful preferring ourselves
before others.
Q. 864. What other daughters hath
pride?
A. Pertinency, discord, disobedience,
and ingratitude.
Q. 865. What is pertinency?
A. A willful sticking to our own opinions,
contrary to the judgment of our betters.
Q. 866. What is discord?
A. A wrangling in words, with such as we
ought to assent and yield unto.
Q. 867. What is disobedience?
A. An opposition to the will or
commands of parents and superiors.
Q. 868. What is ingratitude?
A. A forgetting or neglecting of benefits.
Q. 869. How prove you pride to be
a mortal sin?
A. Because we read, that "God resists the
proud, and gives this grace to the
humble." 1 Pet. v. 5. And "pride is odious
before God and men." Eccl. x. 7.
Q. 870. What are the remedies of
pride?
A. To remember that holy lesson of
Christ, "learn of me, because I am meek
and humble of heart." Matt. xi. 29. And
to consider that we are sinful dust and
shall return again to dust; and that
whatsoever good we have to do, is the
free gift of God.
Q. 871. What is the virtue opposite
to pride?
A. Humility, which teaches us a lowly
opinion of ourselves. "He that humbleth
himself shall be exalted." Matt, xxiii. 12.
Covetousness Expounded
Q. 872. WHAT is covetousness?
A. An inordinate desire of riches.
Q. 873. When is covetousness a
mortal sin?
A. When either we desire to get unjustly
what which is another man's of
79
considerable value, or else refuse to give
of that which is our own, to such as are
in any extreme or great necessity.
Q. 874. How prove you the first
part?
A. Out of 1 Tim. vi. 9. "They, who would
become rich, fall into temptation, and
into the snare of the devil, and into
many unprofitable and hurtful desires,
which drown men in destruction and
perdition: for covetousness is the root of
all evils."
Q. 875. How prove you the latter
part?
A. Out of 1 John iii. 17. "He that hath the
substance of this world, and shall see his
brother in necessity, and shall shut up
his bowels from him; how doth the
charity of God abide in him?"
Q. 876. What other proof have you
for alms?
A. Out of Luke xi. 41. "But yet that which
remains, give alms, and behold all things
are clean unto you." And out of Dan. iv.
24. "Redeem thy sins with alms and thy
iniquity with the mercies of the poor."
Q. 877. What are the daughters of
covetousness?
A. Hardness of heart, unmercifulness to
the poor unquiet solicitude, neglect of
heavenly things, and confidence in
things of this world.
Q. 878. What else?
A. Usury, fraud, rapine, theft, &c.
Q. 879. What are the remedies of
covetousness?
A. To consider "that it is a kind of
idolatry," according to Col. iii. 5. And
that "it is harder for a rich man to enter
into heaven, that for a camel to pass
through the eye of a needle." Matt. xix.
24.
Q. 880. What are the virtues
opposite to covetousness?
A. Liberality, which makes a man give
freely to the poor; and justice, which
renders to a men that which is theirs. "It
is a more blessed thing to give (saith our
Lord) than to take." Acts xxvi. 35. And 2
Cor. ix. 6, St. Paul saith, "He that soweth
sparingly, sparingly also shall he reap;
but he that soweth in blessings, of
blessings also shall he reap; for God
loves the cheerful giver."
Lechery Expounded
Q. 881. WHAT is lechery, or lust?
A. An inordinate desire of carnal sin, or
delights of the flesh.
Q. 882. How prove you the malice
of this sin?
A. Because the whole world was once
drowned, and the cities of Sodom and
Gemorrah were burnt with fire from
heaven for it. Gen. vii. 21, and xix. 24.
Q. 883. What other proof have
you?
A. Out of Rom. viii. 13. "For if you live
according to the flesh, you shall die; but
if by the spirit you mortify the deeds of
the flesh, you shall live."
Q. 884. What are the degrees of
lust?
A. Thought, delight, consent, and act.
Q. 885. What are the daughters of
lust?
A. Fornication, whoredom, adultery,
voluntary pollution, unchaste signs and
touches, wanton kisses and speeches.
80
Q. 886. How prove you voluntary
pollution to be a mortal sin?
A. Out of Gen. xxxviii. 9, where we read,
that Onan was struck dead by God in the
place, for shedding the seed of nature
out of the due use of marriage to hinder
generation, which fact the holy text calls
a destestable thing. He also who was
eldest brother to this Onan, was slain by
God, as we read in the same chapter,
ver. 7. And it is generally thought by
expositors, that his sudden death was in
punishment for the like sin of pollution.
Q. 887. Why are the lustful kisses
and touches mortal sins?
A. Because they vehemently dispose to
fornication and pollution.
Q. 888. Is kissing by way of civility,
when we meet friend, any sin?
A. No, it is not.
Q. 889. What are the remedies of
lust?
A. To consider the beastliness of it, and
that by it we make our bodies, which are
members of Christ, to be members of an
harlot. 1 Cor. vi. 15.
Q. 890. What else?
A. To consider that God and his angels
are even witnesses of it, how private
soever it may seem.
Q. 891. What if the virtue opposite
to lechery?
A. Chastity, which makes us abstain
from carnal pleasures. "Let us behave
ourselves (saith St. Paul) as the
ministers of God, in much patience, in
watching, in fasting, in chastity." 2 Cor.
vi. 4, 6.
Q. 892. How prove you the
greatness of this virtue?
A. Out of Apoc. xiv. 4. "These are they
who were not defiled with women, for
they are virgins, these follow the Lamb
withersoever he shall go."
Envy Expounded
Q. 893. WHAT is envy?
A. It is a sadness or repining at another's
good, in as much as it seems to lessen
our own excellency.
Q. 894. How prove you envy to be a
mortal sin?
A. Because, by the "Devil's envy death
entered into the world, and envy was the
cause of all sin." Wis. ii. 24.
Q. 895. What are the daughters of
envy?
A. Hatred, detraction, rash judgment,
strife, reproach, contempt, and rejoicing
at another's evil.
Q. 896. What are the remedies of
envy?
A. To consider that it robs us of charity,
and deforms us to the likeness of the
Devil.
Q. 897. What is the opposite to
envy?
A. Brotherly love, which is the chiefest
badge of Christianity, "In this all men
should know that you are my disciples, if
you love one another." John xiii. 35.
Gluttony Expounded
Q. 898. WHAT is gluttony?
A. An inordinate excess, or desire of
excess in meat or drink.
Q. 899. How prove you that to be a
mortal sin?
81
A. Out of Cor. vi. 10. "Drunkards shall
not possess the kingdom of God." And
Luke xxi. 34. "Take heed to yourselves,
lest your hearts be overcharged with
surfeiting and drunkenness."
Q. 900. What are the daughters of
gluttony?
A. Babbling scurrility, spewing, sickness,
and dullness of soul and body.
Q. 901. What are the remedies of
it.
A. To consider the abstinence of Christ
and his Saints, and that "gluttons are
enemies to the cross of Christ, whose
end is destruction." Phil. iii. 19.
Anger Expounded
Q. 902. WHAT is anger?
A. An inordinate desire of revenge.
Q. 903. How prove you anger to be
mortal?
A. Out of Matt. ver. 22. "Whosoever
shall be angry with his brother, shall be
guilty of judgment, &c. And whosoever
shall say, thou fool, shall be guilty of hell
fire."
Q. 904. What are the daughters of
anger?
A. Hatred, passion, fury, clamour,
threats, contumey, cursing, blasphemy,
and murder.
Q. 905. What are the remedies of
anger?
A. To remember the holy lesson of
Christ, Luke xxi. 19. "In your patience
you shall possess your souls." And that
of St. Paul. "Be gentle one to another,
pardoning one another, as also God in
Christ hath pardoned you." Ephes. iv.
32.
Q. 906. What is the virtue opposite
to anger?
A. Patience, which suppresseth in us all
passion, and desire of revenge.
Q. 907. How prove you the
necessity and force of patience?
A. Out of Heb. x. 36. "Patience is
necessary for you, that doing the will of
God, you may partake of the promise."
Sloth Expounded
Q. 908. WHAT is sloth?
A. Laziness of mind, neglecting to begin,
or prosecute good things.
Q. 909. How prove you sloth to be
a deadly sin?
A. Out of Apoc. iii. 15. "Because thou art
neither cold nor hot, but lukewarm, I
will begin to cast thee out of my mouth."
Q. 910. What other proof have
you?
A. Out of Matt. xxv. 30. "And the
unprofitable servant cast ye forth into
exterior darkness."
Q. 911. When is sloth mortal?
A. As often as by it we break any
commandment of God or his church.
Q. 912. What are daughters of
sloth?
A. Tepidity, pusillanimity, indevotion,
weariness of life, aversion from spiritual
things, and distrust of God's mercy.
Q. 913. What are the remedies of
sloth?
A. To remember that of Jeremiah xlvii.
10. "Cursed be he that doth the work of
the Lord negligently." And to consider
82
with what diligence men do worldly
business.
Q. 914. What is the virtue opposite
to sloth?
A. Diligence, which makes us careful and
zealous to performing our duty both to
God and men. "Take heed, watch and
pray, for you know not when the time
is," Matt. xiii. 33. "Strive to enter by the
narrow gate, for many I say to you, shall
seek to enter, and shall not be able."
Luke xiii. 24.
Chapter 19.
The Sins against the Holy Ghost Expounded
Q. 915. HOW many are the sins
against the Holy Ghost?
A. Six: despair of salvation, presumption
of God's mercy, to impugn the known
truth, envy at another's spiritual good,
obstinacy in sin, and final impenitence.
Q. 916. What is despair of
salvation?
A. It is a diffidence in the mercies and
power of God as also, in the merits of
Jesus Christ, as if they were not of force
enough to save us. This was the sin of
Cain, when he said, "My sin is greater
than I can deserve pardon." Gen. iv. 13.
And of Judas, "when casting down the
silver pieces in the temple, he went and
hanged himself." Matt, xxvii. 4, 5.
Q. 917. What is the presumption of
God's mercy?
A. A foolish confidence of salvation,
without leading a good life, or any care
to keep the commandments; such as
they entertain who think they will be
saved by faith only, without good works.
Q. 918. What is it to impugn the
known truth?
A. To argue obstinately against known
points of faith, or to prevent the way of
our Lord by forging lies and slander, as
Heretics do, when they teach the
ignorant people, that Catholics worship
images as God, and give Angels and
Saints the honour which is due to God;
or that the Pope for money gives us
pardon to commit what sins we please;
that all which, greater falsehoods cannot
be invented.
Q. 919. What is the envy to
another's spiritual good?
A. A sadness or repining at another's
growth in virtue and perfection; such as
sectaries seem to have when they scoff
and are troubled at the frequent fasts,
prayers, feasts, pilgrimages, alms-deeds,
vows, and religious orders of the
Catholic Church, calling them
superstitious and fooleries, because they
have not in their churches any such
practices of piety.
Q. 920. What is obstinacy in sin?
A. A willful persisting in wickedness,
and running on from sin to sin, after
sufficient instructions and admonition.
83
Q. 921. How show you the malice
of this sin?
A. Out of Heb. x. 26, 27. "If we sin
wilfully after having received the
knowledge of the truth, there is now left
no sacrifice for sins, but a certain
dreadful expectation of judgment."
Q. 922. What other proof have
you?
A. Out of 2 Pet. ii. 21. "It was better for
them not to know the way of justice,
than after the knowledge to turn back
from the holy commandment which was
given them."
Q. 923. What is final impenitence?
A. To die without either confession or
contrition for our sins, as those do of
whom it is said, "With a hard neck, and
with uncircumcised hearts and ears, you
always resist the Holy Ghost." Acts vii.
51. And in the person of whom Job
speaks, saying, "Depart thou from us,
and we will not have the knowledge of
thy ways." Job xxi. 14.
Q. 924. Why is it said that those
sins should never be forgiven,
neither in this world, nor in the
world to come?
A. Not because there is no power in God
or in the sacraments to remit them, if we
confess them, and be sorry for them,
(excepting only final impenitence) of
which we read, "There is a sin to death
for that I say not that any man ask." 1
John i. 9. "If we confess our sins, he is
faithful and just to forgive our sins, and
cleanse us from all iniquity."
Chapter 20.
The Sins that cry to Heaven for Vengeance Expounded
Q. 925. HOW many such sins are
there?
A. Four.
Q. 926. What is the first of them?
A. Wilful murder, which is a voluntary
and unjust taking away another's life.
Q. 927. How show you the pravity
of this sin?
A. Out of Gen. iv. 10. Where it is said to
Cain "What hast thou done? the voice of
the blood of thy brother crieth to me
from the earth: now, therefore shalt
thou be cursed upon the earth." And
Matt, xxvi 52, "All that take the sword,
shall perish with the sword."
Q. 928. What is the second?
A. The sin of Sodom, or carnal sin
against nature, which is a voluntary
shedding of the seed of nature, out of the
due use of marriage, or lust with a
different sex.
Q. 929. What is the scripture proof
of this?
A. Out of Gen. xix. 13. where we read of
the Sodomites, and their sin. "We will
destroy this place because the cry of
them hath increased before our Lord,
84
who hath sent us to destroy them," (and
they were burnt with fire from heaven.)
Q. 930. What is the third?
A. Oppressing of the poor, which is a
cruel, tyrannical, and unjust dealing
with inferiors.
Q. 931. What other proof have you
of that?
A. Out of Exod. xxii. 21. "Ye shall not
hurt the widow and the fatherless: If you
do hurt them, they will cry unto me, and
I will hear them cry, and my fury shall
take indignation, and I will strike thee
with the sword."
And out of Isa. x. 1, 2. "Wo to them that
make unjust laws, that they might
oppress the poor in judgment, and do
violence to the cause of the humble of
my people."
Q. 932. What is the fourth?
A. To defraud working men of their
wages, which is to lessen, or detain it
from them.
Q. 933. What proof have you of it?
A. Out of Eccl. xxxiv. 37. "He that
sheddeth blood and he that defraudeth
the hired man, are brethren," and out of
James v. 4. "Behold the hire of the
workmen that have reaped your fields,
which is defrauded by you, crieth, and
their cry hath entered into the ears of
the Lord God of Sabaoth."
Chapter 21.
The Four Last Things Expounded
Q. 934. WHAT are the four last
things?
A. Death, Judgment, Hell, and Heaven.
Q. 935. What understand you by
death?
A. That we are mortal, and shall once
die; how soon, we are uncertain, and
therefore we must be always prepared
for it.
Q. 936. How prove you that?
A. Out of Heb. ix. 27. "It is decreed for
all men once to die." And Matt. xxv. 13.
"Watch ye therefore, because ye know
not the day nor the hour."
Q. 937. What is the best
preparation for death?
A. A godly life, and to be often doing
penance for our sins, and saying with St.
Paul, "I desire to be dissolved and to be
with Christ." Phil. i. 23.
Q. 938. What else?
A. To remember often that of Matt. xvi.
25. "He that will save his life shall lose it,
and he that shall lose his life for me shall
find it."
Q. 939. What understand you by
judgment?
A. I understand, that (besides the
general judgment at the last day) our
souls as soon as we are dead, shall
receive their particular judgment at the
tribunal of Christ, according to that,
"Blessed are the dead that die in the
85
Lord, from henceforth now, saith the
spirit, they rest from their labours, for
their works follow them." Apoc. xiv. 13.
Q. 940. What is the best
preparation from this judgment?
A. To remember often that of Heb. x. 31.
It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands
of the living God." And that of 1 Cor. xi.
21. "For if we did judge our selves, we
should not be judged."
Q. 941. What understand you by
hell?
A. That such as die in mortal sin "shall
be tormented there both day and night,
and for ever and ever." Apoc. xx. 21.
"There shall be weeping, howling, and
gnashing of teeth; the worm of
conscience shall always gnaw them, and
the fire that torments them, shall never
be extinguished." Mark viii. 44, 45.
Q. 942. What understand you by
heaven?
A. That the elect and faithful servants of
God, shall for ever reign with him in his
kingdom, "where he hath such delights
and comforts for them, as neither eye
hath seen or ear hath heard, neither
hath it entered into the heart of man." 1
Cor. ii. 9.
Q. 943. How prove you that?
A. Out of Matt. vii. 21. "He hath doth the
will of my Father who is in heaven, shall
enter into the kingdom of heaven."
Q. 944. What profit is there in the
frequent memory of all those
things?
A. Very great according to that, "In all
thy works remember the last things, and
thou shalt never sin." Eccles. vii. 40.
which God of his great mercy give us
grace to do. Amen.
Chapter 22.
The Substance or Essence, and Ceremonies
of the Mass, Expounded
Q. 945. WHAT is the mass?
A. It is the unbloody sacrifice of Christ's
body and blood, under the forms of
bread and wine. The word Mass, used in
English, being derived from Missa,
Latin; and the word Missa, though it
may have other derivations, may be well
taken from the Hebrew word Missach,
which signifies a free voluntary offering.
Q. 946. Who instituted the
substance or essence of the Mass?
A. Our Saviour Christ at his last supper,
when he consecrated, i.e. converted the
substance of bread and wine into his
own true body and blood, and gave the
same to his disciples, under the outward
forms of bread and wine, commanding
them to do what he had done in
commemoration of him. Luke xxii. 19.
Q. 947. Who ordained the
ceremonies of the mass?
86
A. The church, directed by the Holy
Ghost.
Q. 948. For what end did the
church ordain them?
A. To stir up devotion in the people, and
reverence to the sacred mysteries.
Q. 949. For what other end?
A. To instruct the ignorant in spiritual
and high things by sensible and material
signs; and by the glory of the church
militant to make them comprehend
something of the glory of the triumphant
church.
Q. 950. What warrant hath the
church to ordain ceremonies?
A. The authority of God himself in the
old law, commanding many and most
stately ceremonies in things belonging
to his service. See the whole book of
Leviticus.
Q. 951. What besides?
A. The example of Christ in the new law
using dust and spittle to cure the blind,
the deaf, and dumb. He prostrated
himself at prayer in the garden three
times. He lifted up his eyes to heaven
and groaned, when he was raising
Lazarus from the dead, which were all
ceremonies.
Q. 952. Did he use any ceremonies
at the last supper, where he
ordained the sacrifice of the mass?
A. He did; for he washed the feet of his
disciples, he blessed the bread and the
cup, and exhorted the communicants.
Q. 953. What signify the several
ornaments of the priest?
A. The Amict, or linen veil, which he
first puts on, represents the veil with
which the Jews covered the face of
Christ, when they buffeted him in the
house of Caiaphas, and bid him
prophesy, "who it was that struck him."
2. The Alb signifies the white garment,
which Herod put on him, to intimate
that he was a fool.
3. The Girdle signifies the cord that
bound him in the garden.
4. The Maniple, the cord which bound
him to the pillar.
5. The Stole, the cord by which they led
him to the crucified.
6. The priest's upper, Vestment,
represents both the seamless coat of
Christ, as also the purple garment with
which they clothed him in derision in
the house of Pilate.
7. The Altar-stone, represents the cross
on which he offered himself unto the
Father.
8. The Chalice, the sepulchre or grave of
Christ.
9. The Paten, the stone which was rolled
to the door of the sepulchre.
10. The Altar-cloths, with the corporal
and Pall, the linen in which the dead
body of Christ was shrouded and buried.
Finally, the candles on the Altar puts us
in mind of the light which Christ
brought into the world by his passion, as
also of his immortal and ever shining
divinity.
Q. 954. What meaneth the priest's
coming back three steps from the
Altar, and humbling himself
before he begins?
A. It signifies the prostrating of Christ in
the garden, when he began his passion.
87
Q. 955. Why doth the priest bow
himself again at the Confiteor?
A. To move the people to humiliation;
and to signify that by the merits and
passion of Christ, (which they are there
to commemorate) salvation may be had,
if it be sought with a contrite and
humble heart.
Q. 956. Why doth he beat his
breast as Mea Culpa?
A. To teach the people to return into the
heart, and signifies that all sin is from
the heart, and ought to be discharged
from the heart, with hearty sorrow.
Q. 957. Why doth the priest,
ascending to the Altar, kiss it in
the middle?
A. Because the Altar signifies the church,
composed of divers people, as of divers
living stones, which Christ kissed in the
middle, by giving a holy kiss of peace
and unity, both to the Jews and Gentiles.
Q. 958. What signifies the Introit?
A. It is, as it were, the entrance into the
office, or that which the priest saith first
after his coming to the Altar, and
signifies the desires and groanings of the
ancient fathers longing for the coming
Christ.
Q. 959. Why is the Introit repeated
twice?
A. To signify the frequent repetition of
their desires and supplications.
Q. 960. Why do we add unto the
Introit, Gloria Patri, &c. glory be to
the Father, &c. Amen?
A. To render thanks to the most Blessed
Trinity for our redemption,
accomplished by the cross.
Q. 961. What means the Kyrie
Eleison?
A. It signifies, "Lord have mercy on us,"
and is repeated thrice in honour of the
Son, and thrice in honour of the Holy
Ghost.
Q. 962. Why so often?
A. To signify our great necessity, and
earnest desires to find mercy.
Q. 963. What means the
Adoremus?
It signifies, "Glory be to God on high;"
and is the song which the angels sung at
the birth of Christ, used in this place to
signify, that the mercy which we beg,
was brought us by the birth and death of
Christ.
Q. 964. What means the Oremus?
A. It signifies, "Let us pray;" and is the
priest's address to the people, by which
he invites them to join with him, both in
his prayer and intention.
Q. 965. What means the Collect?
A. It is the priest's prayer, and is called a
Collect, because it collects and gathers
together the supplications of the
multitude, speaking them all with one
voice and also because it is a collection,
or sum of the Epistle and Gospel, for the
most part of the year, especially of all
the Sundays.
Q. 966. Why doth the clerk say,
Amen.
A. He doth it in the name of the people,
to signify, that all concur with the priest,
in his petition of prayer.
Q. 967. What meaneth the
Dominus Vobiscum?
88
A. It signifies, "Our Lord be with you,"
and is used to beg God's presence and
assistance to the people, in the
performance of that work.
Q. 968. Why is it answered Et cum
Spiritu tuo, "and with thy spirit?"
A. To signify, that the people with one
consent do beg the like for him.
Q. 969. Why are all the prayers
ended with Per Dominum nostrum
Jesum Christum, &c. "Through
our Lord Jesus Christ?"
A. To signify, that whatsover we beg of
God the Father, we must beg it in the
name of Jesus Christ, by whom he hath
given us all things.
Q. 970. What signifies the Epistle?
A. It signifies the old law; as also the
preaching of the Prophets and the
Apostles, out of whom it is commonly
taken: and it is read before the Gospel,
to intimate that the old law being able to
bring nothing to perfection, it was
necessary the new should succeed it.
Q. 971. What means the Gradual?
A. It signifies the penance preached by
St. John Baptist, and that we cannot
obtain the salvation of Christ, but by the
holy degrees of penance.
Q. 972. What means the Alleluiah?
A. It is the voice of men rejoicing, and
aspiring to the joys of heaven.
Q. 973. Why is the Alleluiah
repeated so often at the feast of
Easter?
A. Because it is the joyful solemnity of
our Saviour's resurrection.
Q. 974. Why between the
Septuagesima and Easter, is the
Tract read in the place of the
Gradual?
A. Because it is a time of penance and
mourning, and therefore the Tract is
read with a mournful and slow voice, to
signify the miseries and punishments of
this life.
Q. 975. What is the Tract?
A. Two or three versicles between the
Epistle and the Gospel, sung with a slow,
long protracted tone.
Q. 976. Why do we rise up at the
reading of the Gospel?
A. To signify our readiness to go, and do,
whither, and whatsoever it commands
us.
Q. 977. What means the Gospel?
A. It signifies the preaching of Christ;
and is the happy embassy or message of
Christ unto the world.
Q. 978. Why is the Gospel read at
the North end, or left side of the
Altar?
A. To signify that by the preaching of the
Gospel of Christ, the kingdom of the
Devil was overthrown.
Q. 979. How prove you that?
A. Because the Devil hath chosen the
North (figuratively infidels, and the
wicked) for the seat of his malice. "From
the North shall all evil be opened upon
all the inhabitants of the land." Jer. i. 14.
and Zach. ii. 7.
Q. 980. Why doth the priest before
he begins the Gospel, salute the
people with Dominus vobiscum?
A. To prepare them for a devout hearing
of it, and to beg of our Lord to make
89
them worthy hearers of his word, which
can save their souls.
Q. 981. Why then doth he say,
Sequentia sancti Evangelii, &c. The
sequel of the Holy Gospel, &c.?
A. To move attention, and to signify
what part of the Gospel he then reads.
Q. 982. Why doth the clerk
answer, Gloria tibi Domine, Glory
be to thee, O Lord?
A. To give the glory of the gospel to God,
who hath of his mercy made us
partakers of it.
Q. 983. Why then doth the priest
sign the book with the sign of the
cross?
A. To signify that the doctrine there
delivered, appertains to the cross and
passion of Christ.
Q. 984. Why after this do both
priest and people sign themselves
with the cross in three places?
A. They sign themselves on their
foreheads, to signify they are not, nor
will be ashamed to profess Christ
crucified: on their mouths to signify they
will be ready with their mouths, to
confess unto salvation: and on their
breast to signify that with their hearts
they believe unto justice.
Q. 985. Why at the end of the
Gospel, do they sign their breast
again with the sign of the cross?
A. That the Devil may not steal the seed
of God's word out of their hearts.
Q. 986. What means the Creed?
A. It is a public profession of out faith,
and the wholesome fruit of preaching
the Gospel.
Q. 987. What means the first
offertory, where the priest offers
bread and wine mingled with
water?
A. It signifies the freedom wherewith
Christ offered himself in his whole life
unto his passion, and the desire he had
to suffer for our sins.
Q. 988. What signifies the
mingling of water with wine?
A. It signifies the blood and water
flowing from the side of Christ; as also
the union of the faithful with Christ.
Q. 989. Why then doth the priest
wash the ends of his fingers?
A. To admonish both himself and the
people to wash away the unclean
thoughts of their hearts, that so they
may partake of that clean sacrifice: As
also to signify, that the priest is, ought to
be clean from mortal sin.
Q. 990. Why then after some
silence, doth he begin the preface
with an elevated voice, saying Per
omnia saecula saeculorum?
A. To signify the triumphant entry of
Christ into Jerusalem, after he had lain
hid a little space; and therefore it is
ended with Hosana, benedictus qui
venit, &c. which was the Hebrew
children's song.
Q. 991. What else meaneth the
preface?
A. It is a preparation of the people, for
the approaching action of the sacrifice;
and therefore the priest saith, Sursum
corda, lift your hearts to God; so to move
them to lay aside all earthly thoughts,
and to think only on heavenly things.
Q. 992. Why at these words,
Benedictus qui venit, Blessed is he
90
that cometh in our Lord's name,
doth he sign himself with the sign
of the cross?
A. To signify that the entry of Christ into
Jerusalem was not to a kingdom of this
world, but to a death upon the cross.
Q. 993. What is the Canon?
A. It is a most sacred, essential, and
substantial part of the mass, because in
it the sacrifice is effected.
Q. 994. Why is the Canon read
with a low voice?
A. To signify the sadness in our
Saviour's passion, which is there
effectually represented.
Q. 995. Why doth the priest begin
the Canon bowing his head?
A. To signify the obedience of Christ
unto his Father in making himself a
sacrifice to sin.
Q. 996. What meaneth the Te
igitur, clementissime Pater, &c.
Thee therefore, O most clement
Father, &c.?
A. It is a humble and devout
supplication to God our heavenly
Father, made in the name of all the
people, that he would vouchsafe to
accept and bless the sacrifice which we
are offering unto him for the peace,
unity and conversation of the whole
Catholic Church, and likewise for the
Pope, our prelate, and all the other the
truly faithful.
Q. 997. Why in the middle of this
prayer doth the priest kiss the
altar, and sign the Host and
Chalice thrice with the sign of the
cross?
A. He kisseth the altar, to show the kiss
of peace which Christ gave us, by
reconciling us to God in his own blood.
He signeth the Host and Chalice thrice
to signify that our redemption made
upon the Cross, was done by the will of
the Holy Trinity.
Q. 998. What meaneth the
Memento Domine famulorum
famularumque tuarum:
Remember, O Lord, thy servants,
men and women, &c.?
A. It is a commemoration of the living,
in which the pries remembers by name,
such as he intends chiefly to say mass
for, and then in general, all present and
all the faithful, beseeching God by virtue
of the sacrifice, to bless them, and be
mercifully mindful of them.
Q. 999. What means the
Communicantes and memorum
venerantes, &c. Communicating
and worshipping the memory, &c.?
A. It is an exercise of our communion
with the saints in which having
recounted the names of the blessed
virgin Mary, and many other glorious
saints, we beg of God by their merits and
intercession, to grant us the assistance
of his protection in all things.
Q. 1000. What signifies the Hanc
igitur oblationem, this offering
therefore of our servitude, &c.
when the priest spreads his hands
over the Host and Chalice?
A. It is an earnest begging of God to
accept the sacrifice that is presented to
be offered for the safety and peace of the
whole church, and salvation of all from
eternal damnation.
Q. 1001. Why then doth he sign the
offerings again five times?
91
A. To signify the mystery of those five
days which were between our Saviour's
entry into Jerusalem and his passion.
Q. 1002. What meaneth Qui pridie
quam pateretur, who the day
before he suffered, &c.
A. It is but a repetition and
representation of what Christ did at his
last supper, where he took bread,
blessed it, &c. and immediately precedes
the words of consecration spoken by the
priest, by which he sacrificeth to God.
Q. 1003. What are the words of
consecration?
A. "Hoc est corpus meum. &c. This is my
body; This is the cup of my blood, of the
New and eternal Testament; a mystery
of faith, which shall be shed for you, and
for the many, to the remission of sins."
Matt. xxvi. 27, 28.
Q. 1004. What meaneth these
words?
A. They signify according to the letter,
what they effect and cause, viz. a change
of the bread and wine into the body and
blood of Christ; and in a mystery also
they signify, unto us the incarnation,
passion, resurrection, and ascension of
Christ.
Q. 1005. Why after consecration of
the Host, doth the priest kneel and
adore?
A. He kneels and adores, to give
sovereign honour to Christ, and signify
the real presence of his body and blood
in the blessed sacrament which he then
holds in his hand.
Q. 1006. Why after consecration of
the wine, doth the priest kneel and
adore, saying, Haec quotiescumque
feceritis, &c. that is, "As often as
you shall do these things, you shall
do them in remembrance of me." 1
Cor. xi. 25?
A. He kneels and adores, to give
sovereign honour to Christ, and to
signify the real presence of Christ's body
and blood in the chalice, then on the
altar, and he speaks these words to
signify, that as often as we say, or hear
mass, and offer up this sacrifice, we
must do it as Christ hath commanded
us, in memory of his passion,
resurrection and ascension: and
therefore he goes on, beseeching God by
all those mysteries, to look propitiously
upon our holy and immaculate host, as
he did upon the sacrifices of Abraham,
Abel, and Melchisedech, and to
replenish all that partake thereof, with
heavenly grace and benediction.
Q. 1007. Why after consecration of
each, doth the priest elevate, or lift
up the consecrated host and
chalice?
A. That all the people may adore the
body and blood of Christ, as also to
signify, that for our sins his body was
lifted on the Cross and his blood shed.
Q. 1008. For what other end doth
he elevate the host and chalice?
A. That he, with the whole multitude,
may make oblations of Christ's body and
blood unto God, which after
consecration, is one of the most
essential parts of the whole service of
the mass, and signifies that oblation,
wherewith Christ offered himself unto
God upon the altar of the Cross.
Q. 1009. Why then doth he again
sign the offerings five times with
the sign of the Cross?
A. To signify the five wounds of Christ,
which he represents to the eternal
Father for us.
92
Q. 1010. What means the
Momento?
A. It is a commemoration of the dead; in
which the pries first nominates those
whom he intends especially to apply the
sacrifice unto; and then prays in general
for all the faithful departed, beseeching
God by virtue of that sacrifice, to give
them rest, refreshment, and everlasting
life.
Q. toil. Why after the Momento
for the dead, doth the priest
elevate or raise his voice, saying,
Nobis quoqueveccatoribus, "and to
us sinners also," &c.?
A. In memory of the supplication of the
penitent thief made to Christ on the
Cross; that so we also (though unworthy
sinners) by the virtue of the sacrifice,
may with him and the holy saints, be
made partakers of the heavenly
kingdom.
Q. 1012. Why then doth he again
sign the Host and Chalice three
times with the sign of the Cross?
A. To signify, that this sacrifice is
available for three sorts of men: for
those in heaven, to the increase or glory;
for those in purgatory, to free up them
from their pains; and for those on earth,
to an increase of grace and remission of
their sins; as also to signify the three
hours which Christ did hang living upon
the Cross, and all the griefs he sustained
in them.
Q. 1013. Why then, uncovering the
chalice, doth he sign it five times
with the Host?
A. His uncovering the chalice is to
signify, that at the death of Christ the
veil of the temple was rent asunder. The
three crosses made over the chalice,
signify the three hours which Christ
hung dead on the cross; the other two
made at the brim of the chalice,
signifying the blood and water flowing
from his side.
Q. 1014. Why is the Pater Noster
said with a loud voice?
A. To signify, by the seven petitions
thereof, the seven mystical words which
Christ spoke upon the Cross with a loud
voice, viz. "Father, forgive them, they
know not what they do. 2. To day shalt
thou be with me in Paradise. 3. Behold
thy mother; woman behold thy son. 4.
My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me. 5. 1 thirst. 6. Into thy
hands I commend my spirit. 7. It is
consummated."
Q. 1015. What means the priest
laying down the Host upon the
corporal, and then covering the
chalice again?
A. It signifies the taking of our Saviour
down from the Cross, and his burial.
Q. 1016. Why, then is the priest
silent for a time?
A. To signify our Saviour's rest in the
sepulchre on the Sabbath?
Q. 1017. Why is the Host divided
into three parts?
A. To signify the division of our
Saviour's soul and body made on the
Cross, and that the body was broken,
and divided in three principle parts,
namely his hands, side, and feet.
Q. 1018. Why after this doth he
sign the chalice three times with a
particle of the Host, and raise his
voice saying, Pax Domini, &c., The
peace of our Lord be always with
you?
93
A. To signify that the frequent voice of
Christ to his disciples, Pax vobis, Peace
be to you; as also to signify the triple
peace which he hath purchased for us,
by his Cross, namely, external, internal,
and eternal.
Q. 1019. Why then is the particle of
the Host put into the chalice?
A. To signify the reuniting of our
Saviour's body, blood and soul, made at
his resurrection; as also to signify, that
we cannot partake of the blood and
merits of Christ, unless we partake of his
cup of sufferings.
Q. 1020. Why is the Agnus Dei, or
Lamb of God, which taketh away
the sins of the world, said with a
loud voice?
A. To commemorate the glory of our
Saviour's ascension, and to signify that
he was slain like an innocent lamb to
take away our sins and give us peace.
Q. 1021. Why is the Pax, or kiss of
peace, given before communion?
A. To signify, that peace and mutual
charity, which ought to be among the
faithful, who all eat of one bread and of
the Eucharist and are all members of
one mystical body.
Q. 1022. What means the three
prayers said by the priest before
the communion?
A. They are said in honour of the blessed
Trinity. In the first he begs peace for the
whole church, and perfect charity
among all Christians. In the second, he
beseecheth God, by the body and blood
of Christ, (which he is there about to
receive) to free him from all evil. In the
third, that it may not prove to his
damnation and judgment, by an
unworthy receiving of it, but to the
defence and safety of his soul and body.
And this immediately precedes the
consummation of the Host and Chalice,
which is another of the most essential
parts of the whole service of the mass.
Q. 1023. What signifies the
consummation of communion?
A. It signifies Christ's burial, and the
consummation of his passion.
Q. 1024. What means the Domine
non sum dignus, &c.?
A. It signifies, "O Lord, I am not worthy
that thou shouldest enter under my roof;
but only say the word," &c. And it was
the Centurion's prayer, by which he
obtained health for the sick boy, Matt,
viii. 8. And teacheth us not to approach
this sacrifice, but with an humble and
contrite heart.
Q. 1025. What means the prayers
said by the priest after
communion?
A. They are thanksgiving to God for
having made us partakers of his
unbloody sacrifice of the Altar, and by it
also of the bloody sacrifice of the Cross.
Q. 1026. What means the words Ite
Missa est?
A. They signify, that the Host is offered,
Mass ended, and the people dismissed;
representing the voice of the angel
dismissing the apostles and disciples
when they stood looking up after Christ
ascended into heaven, with, "O ye men
of Galilee, why stand you here looking
up into heaven?" Acts i. 11.
Q. 1027. What means the priest
lifting up his hands and blessing
the people?
94
A. It signifies the blessing which Christ
gave his apostles and disciples at his
ascension, with his hands lifted up.
Q. 1028. What signifies the Gospel
of St. John?
A. It signifies the Apostles preaching the
gospel to all nations. Luke xxiv. 50.
Q. 1029. What is the missal?
A. It is the Mass book, wherein this holy
service is contained.
Chapter 23.
The Primer or Office of our Blessed Lady, Expounded
Q. 1030. WHO composed this
office?
A. The church, directed by the Holy
Ghost.
Q. 1031. Why is the Primer so
called?
A. From the Latin word Primo, which
signifies, first of all, so to teach us, that
prayer should be the first work of the
day, according to that, "Seek ye first the
kingdom of heaven, and all these things
shall be given you.
Q. 1032. Why is the office divided
into Hymns, Psalms, Canticles,
Antiphons, Versicles,
Responsories, and Prayers?
A. For order, beauty, and variety sake.
Q. 1033. What warrant have you
for that?
A. Out of Col. iii. 16. "Sing ye in your
hearts unto the Lord in spiritual Psalms,
Hymns, and Canticles."
Q. 1034. Why should the laity pray
out of the Psalms, which they little
understand?
A. 1. Because, by so doing, they pray out
of the mouth of the Holy Ghost. 2.
Because, if they do it with devout and
humble hearts, it is as meritorious in
them, as in the greatest scholars; for a
petition hath the same force, whether it
be delivered by a learned or unlearned
man; so hath also prayer. 3. Because a
psalm is of the same value in the sight of
God, in the mouth of a child, or woman,
as from the mouth of the most learned
doctor.
Q. 1035. Why is the office divided
into seven several hours?
A. That so it might be a daily memorial
of the seven principal parts, and seven
hours of our Saviour's passion.
Q. 1036. What ground have you for
that?
A. Out of Zac. xii 10. "At that day I will
pour out upon the house of David, and
the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit
of grace and prayer, and they shall look
up at him whom they have pierced."
Q. 1037. What meaneth at that
day?
A. The day of grace, the new law.
Q. 1038. What means the house of
David, and the inhabitants of
Jerusalem?
95
A. The church of Christ.
Q. 1039. What means the spirit of
grace and prayer?
A. The Holy Ghost which dictated the
office, and poureth forth the grace of
God into our souls by virtue of it.
Q. 1040. What means, "And they
shall look up at him whom they
have pierced?"
A. It signifies that the whole order,
scope, and object of the office should be
Christ crucified.
Q. 1041. How are the seven hours a
memorial of the passion of Christ?
A. Because the seven hours were
consumed in his passion; for three hours
he hung living on the Cross; other three
hours he hung dead upon it; and the
seventh hour was spent in nailing him to
and taking him from the cross.
Q. 1042. What do we
commemorate by the Matins and
Lauds?
A. His bloody sweat in the garden; as
also his been dragged thence to
Jerusalem.
Q. 1043. What by the prime or first
hour?
A. The scoffs and indignations which he
sustained, whilst they led him through
the streets early in the morning to the
princes of the Jews; as also the false
accusations which then were brought
against him.
Q. 1044. What by the third hour?
A. His whipping at the pillar, his
crowning with thorns, his clothing with
a purple garment, his sceptre of a reed,
and showing to the people with these
words: Behold the man.
Q. 1045. What by the sixth hour?
A. His unjust condemnation to death,
his carrying the Cross, his stripping and
nailing to the Cross.
Q. 1046. What by the ninth hour?
A. His drinking gall and vinegar, his
dying on the Cross, and the opening his
side with a spear.
Q. 1047. What by the even-song?
A. His taking down from the Cross, and
the darkness which was made upon the
face of the earth.
Q. 1048. What by the Compline?
A. His funeral and burial. Briefly thus;
The matins and lauds, his agony, and
binding in the garden; the crime, his
scoffs, and false accusations; the third
hour, his clothing with purple, and
crowning with thorns; the sixth hour, his
condemning and nailing to the Cross;
the ninth hour, his yielding up the ghost,
and the opening his side; the even-song,
his taking from the Cross; and the
compline, his burial.
The Particulars of the Office
Expounded
Q. 1049. WHY doth our Lady's
office always begin with an Ave
Maria?
A. To dedicate the office of our Lady,
and to beg her aid for the devout
performance of it to God's honour.
Q. 1050. Why do we begin every
hour with, Incline unto my aid, O
God: O Lord, make haste to help
me?
A. To acknowledge our infirmity and
misery, and out great need of divine
assistance, not
96
only in all other things, but also in our
very prayers; according to that of the
Apostles,
"No man can say Lord Jesus, but in the
Holy Ghost."
Q. 1051. Why do we add to this,
Glory be to the Father, and to the
Son, and to the Holy Ghost?
A. To signify that the intention of the
office is, in the first place, to give one
and equal glory to the most blessed
Trinity, and to invite all creatures to do
the like, this is the principle aim of the
whole office; therefore we not only begin
every hour, but also end every Psalm
with the same verse.
Q. 1052. Who ordained the Gloria
Patri?
A. The Apostles, according to Baronius
in his 3d Tome.
Q. 1053. Why do we join unto the
Gloria Patri, Sicut erat, &c. As it
was in the beginning, is now, and
ever shall be, world without end?
A. Because it was made by the Council of
Nice against the Arians, who denied
Christ to be coequal and consubstantial
to his Father, or to have been before the
blessed Virgin Mary.
Q. 1054. Why after this, for a great
part of the year, and especially
between Easter and Whitsuntide,
do we say, Alleluia, Alleluia?
A. Because that is a time of joy, and
Alleluia is a Hebrew word, signifying,
"Praise ye the Lord with all joy, and
exultation of heart."
Q. 1055. Why were it not better
changed into English?
A. Because it is the language of the
blessed in heaven, according to Apoc.
viii. 6. Therefore the church hath
forbidden it to be translated into any
other language.
Q. 1056. Why in Lent, and some
other times, do we say, instead of
Alleluiah, "Praise be to thee, O
Lord, King of eternal Glory?
A. Because those are times of penance;
therefore God must be praised rather
with tears, than exaltation.
Q. 1057. Why then do we always
say, for the invitatory Hail Mary,
full of grace, the Lord is with thee?
A. To congratulate and renew the
memory of our blessed Lady's joy,
conceived at the conception of her Son
Jesus; and to invite both men and angels
to do the like.
Q. 1058. What signify the five
verses following the invitatory,
which begin, Come let us exult
unto our Lord?
A. The five wounds of Christ, from
which all our prayer hath its force and
merit, and in honour of which all those
versions are said.
Q. 1059. What mean the Hymns?
A. They are a poetical expression of
prerogatives and praises of the Blessed
Virgin.
Q. 1060. Why are so many Psalms
used in the office?
A. Because they are directed by the Holy
Ghost, and do contain in a most moving
manner, all the affections of piety and
devotion.
Q. 1061. Why are there but three
Psalms in the most of the hours?
97
A. In honour of the most blessed Trinity,
to whom chiefly the whole office is
addressed.
Q. 1062. Why was the office
divided into so many hours?
A. I have told you the chief reason
already, and one other reason is, that so
there might be no hour either by day or
night, to which some hour of the office
might not correspond.
Q. 1063. What do the matins
correspond to?
A. To the first, second, and third watch
of the night, consisting of three hours
each; and therefore the matins consist of
three psalms, and three lessons.
Q. 1064. What do the lauds
correspond to?
A. To the fourth watch of the night.
Q. 1065. What do the prime, the
third, sixth, and ninth hours
correspond to?
A. To the third, sixth, and ninth hours of
the day.
Q. 1066. What do the even-song
and compline correspond to?
A. To the evening.
Q. 1067. What means the
benedictions, or blessings given
before the lesson?
A. They are short aspirations to beg
divine assistance; and the first is in
honour of the Father, and the second in
honour of the Son, the third in honour of
the Holy Ghost.
Q. 1068. What doth the lesson
contain?
A. The mystical praises of our blessed
Lady, taken out of the Prophets.
Q. 1069. Why do we end every
lesson, saying, But thou, O Lord,
have mercy upon us?
A. To beg the praises and virtues of the
blessed Virgin, which we have there
read, may be deeply settled in our
hearts, and that God would pardon our
former negligence, both in his and her
service.
Q. 1070. Why is it answered,
Thanks be to God?
A. To render thanks to God for his
mercy, in bestowing such a patroness on
us as the blessed Virgin Mary.
Q. 1071. What means the
responsories?
A. They are so called, because they
answer one another.
Q. 1072. What are the antiphons?
A. The versicles which are begun before
the Psalms.
Q. 1073. Why do we stand up at the
Magnificat, Benedictus, and Nunc
dimittis?
A. To signify our reverence to the gospel
whence they are taken.
Q. 1074. What is the collect?
A. It is a prayer, and is so called, because
it collects and gathers together all the
petitions and supplications of the whole
office.
Q. 1075. Why is the collect always
ended with these words, Through
our Lord Jesus Christ, &c.?
A. To signify that he is our only mediator
of redemption, and principally mediator
of intercession; and that we cannot
merit any thing by our prayers unless we
make them in his name.
98
Q. 1076. Why make we a
commemoration of the Saints?
A. To praise God in his Saints, according
to the advice of the Psalmist, Psalm cl.,
and to recommend ourselves to their
merits and prayers.
Q. 1077. Why end we every prayer
with these words, And may the
souls of the faithful, through the
mercy of God, rest in peace?
A. That the poor souls in purgatory, may
be partakers of all our prayers and
supplications.
Q. 1078. Why is the whole office
ended with some hymn or
antiphon to our Lady?
A. That by her it may be presented to her
Son, and by him to his eternal Father.
Q. 1079. Why are the nocturnes in
some offices so called?
A. Because those parts of the offices
were wont to be said Nocturne tempore,
in the night time.
Q. 1080. Why are the fifteen
gradual psalms so called?
A. From a custom the Jews observed of
singing them, as they ascended up
fifteen steps or degrees (in Latin
Gradus) towards Solomon's Temple,
singing one psalm on every step.
Q. 1081. Why are the penitential
psalms so called?
A. Because they contain many deep
expressions of inward sorrow and
penitence, or repentance of sins
committed, and many cries or
supplications to God for mercy and
forgiveness.
Chapter 24.
The Solemnities of CHRIST our Lord,
(instituted for the most part by the Apostles)
and the Sundays of the Year, Expounded
Q. 1082. WHAT meaneth the
nativity of Christ, or Christmas?
A. It is a solemn feast or mass yearly
celebrated by the whole Catholic Church
from the Apostles' time to this day, in
memory of the birth of Christ at
Bethlehem; and therefore is called the
feast of the Nativity, and Christmas from
the mass of the birth of Christ.
Q. 1083. What meaneth the
Circumcision or New-year's Day.
A. It is a feast in memory of the
Circumcision of our Lord, which was
made on the eighth day from his nativity
according to the prescript of the old law,
Gen. xviii. 12, when he was named Jesus
according to what the angel had
foretold, Luke i. 14, and began to shed
his infant blood by the stony knife of
Circumcision for the redemption of the
world, presenting it to his Father, as a
New-year's gift in our behalf. And it is
called New year's day from the old
99
Roman account, who began their
computation of the year from the first of
January.
Q. 1084. What meaneth the
Epiphany, or twelfth day?
A. It is a solemnity in memory and
honour of Christ's manifestation or
apparition made to the Gentiles by a
miraculous blazing star, by virtue
whereof he drew and conducted three
kings out of the East to adore him in the
manager, where they presented him as
on this day with gold, myrrh, and
frankincense, in testimony of his
regality, humanity, and divinity. The
word Epiphany comes from the Greek,
and signifies a manifestation, and is
called Twelfth-day, because it is
celebrated the twelfth day after his
nativity exclusively.
Q. 1085. What meaneth
purification or Candlemass-day?
A. It is a feast in memory and honour
both of the presentation of our blessed
Lord, and of the purification of the
blessed Virgin, made in the Temple of
Jerusalem the fortieth day after her
happy child birth, according to the law
of Moses, Levit. xii. 6. And is called the
Purification, from the Latin word
Purifico, to purity; not that our blessed
Lady and contracted any thing by her
child-birth, which needed purifying,
(being the mother of purity itself) but
because other mothers were by this
ceremonial rite freed from the legal
impurity of their child-births.
And is also called Candlemass, or a Mass
Candles; because before the mass of that
day, the church blesses her candles for
the whole year, and makes a procession
with hallowed candles in the hands of
the faithful, in memory of divine light,
wherewith Christ illuminated the whole
church at his presentation, where aged
Simeon styled him, "A light to the
Revelation of the Gentiles, and the glory
of his people Israel." Luke ii. 32.
Q. 1086. What meaneth the
resurrection of our Lord, or
Easter-day?
A. It is a solemnity in memory and
honour of our Saviour's resurrection, or
rising from the dead on the third day,
Matt, xxvii. 6. And is called Easter, from
Oriens, which signifies the East or
Rising, which is one of the titles of
Christ, "And his name (saith the
prophet) shall be called Oriens." Zach.
vi. 12, because as the material sun daily
ariseth from the East, the sun of justice,
at this day, arose from the dead.
Q. 1087. What meaneth ascension-
day?
A. If is from a feast in memory of
Christ's ascension into heaven the
fortieth day after his resurrection, in the
sight of his Apostles and Disciples, Acts
i. 9, 10, there to prepare a place for us,
being preceded by whole legions of
Angels, and waited on by millions of
Saints, whom he had freed out of the
prison of Limbo. Mich. ii. 13.
Q. 1088. What meaneth Pentecost
or Whitsuntide?
A. It is a solemn feast in memory and
honour of the coming of the Holy Ghost
upon the heads of the Apostles, in
tongues as it were of fire, Acts ii. 3.
Pentecost in Greek signifieth the
Fiftieth, it being the fiftieth day after the
resurrection. If is also called
Whitsunday from the Catechumens, who
were clothed in white, and admitted on
the eve of this feast to the sacrament of
baptism. It was anciently called Wied
Sunday, (i.e.) Holy Sunday, for wied or
100
withed signifies Holy in the old Saxon
language.
Q. 1089. What meaneth Trinity
Sunday?
A. It is the octave of Whitsunday, and is
so called in honour of the Blessed
Trinity, to signify that the works of our
redemption and sanctification then
completed, are common to all the three
persons.
Q. 1090. What meaneth Corpus
Christi day?
A. It is a feast instituted by the church,
in honour of the body and blood of
Christ, really present in the most holy
sacrament of the Eucharist; during the
octave of which feast, it is exposed to be
adored by the faithful in all the principle
churches of the world, and great
processions are made in honour of it;
and therefore is called Corpus Christi
day, or the day of the body of Christ.
Q. 1091. What meaneth the
transfiguration of our Lord?
A. It is a feast in memory of our
Saviour's transfiguring himself upon
Mount Tabor, and showing a glimpse of
his glory to his Apostles, St. Peter, St.
James, and St. John. "And his face (saith
the text) shown as the sun, and his
garment became white as snow," & c.
Matt. xvii. 2. And in them also unto us,
for our encouragement to virtue, and
perseverance in his holy faith and love.
The entymology is obvious from
transfiguro, to transfigure, or to change
shape.
Q. 1092. What is Sunday, or the
Lord's Day in general?
A. It is a day dedicated by the Apostles
to the honour of the most holy Trinity,
and in memory that Christ our Lord
arose from the dead upon Sunday, sent
down the holy Ghost on a Sunday, &c.
and therefore is called the Lord's Day. It
is also called Sunday from the old
Roman denomination of Dies Solis, the
day of the sun, to which it was sacred.
Q. 1093. What are the four
Sundays of Advent?
A. They are the four Sundays preceding
Christmas day, and were so called by the
church, in memory and honour of our
Saviour's coming both to redeem the
world by his birth in the flesh, and to
judge the quick and the dead; from the
Latin word Adventus, which signifies
Advent, or coming.
Q. 1094. What are the four
Sundays of Septuagesima,
Sexagesima, Quinquagesiam, and
Quadragesima?
A. Those days are appointed by the
church for acts of penance and
mortification, and are a certain
gradation or preparation for the passion
and resurrection of Christ, being so
called, because the first is the seventieth,
the second the sixtieth, the third the
fiftieth, the fourth the fortieth day, or
thereabouts, preceding the octave of the
resurrection according as their several
names import.
Q. 1095. Why is the whole lent
called Quadragesima?
A. Because it is a fast of forty days, in
imitation of Christ's fasting in the desert
forty days and forty nights, and is begun
the fortieth day before Easter, which is
therefore called Quadragesima, or the
fortieth.
Q. 1096. What is Passion-Sunday?
A. That is a feast so called from the
passion of Christ then drawing nigh, and
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was ordained to prepare us for a worthy
celebrating of it.
Q. 1097. Why is Palm-Sunday so
called?
A. It is a day in memory and honour of
the triumphant entry of our Lord into
Jerusalem, and is so called from the
palm branches, which the Hebrew
children strewed under his feet, crying
Hosanna to the Son of David, Matt. xxi.
15. And hence it is that yearly, as on that
day, the church blesseth Palms, and
makes a solemn procession in honour of
the same triumph, all the people bearing
Palm branches in their hands.
Q. 1098. What is Dominica in
albis, commonly called Low-
Sunday?
A. It is the octave of Easter-day; and is
so called from the Catechumens, or
Neophytes, who were on that day
solemnly divested in the church of their
white garments.
The Feasts of our Blessed
Lady, and the Saints,
Expounded
Q. 1099. WHAT means the
conception, nativity, presentation,
annunciation, visitation, and
assumption of our blessed Lady?
A. They are feasts instituted by the
church in memory and honour of the
mother of God, but chiefly to the honour
of God himself; and so are all the other
feasts of Saints.
Q. 1100. How explain you that
answer?
A. The feast of the Conception is in
memory of her miraculous conception,
who was conceived by her parents, St.
Joachim and St. Anne, in their old age,
and sanctified from the first instant in
the womb. The Nativity is in the
memory of her happy and glorious birth,
by whom the author of all life and
salvation was born to the world. The
Presentation, in memory of her being
present in the Temple at three years old,
where she vowed herself to God, both
soul and body. The Annunciation is in
memory of that most happy embassy
brought to her by the angel Gabriel from
God, in which she was declared to be the
mother of God, Luke i. 31, 32. The
Visitation is in memory of her visiting
St. Elizabeth, after she had conceived
the Son of God, at whose presence St.
John the Baptist leaped in his mother's
womb, Luke i. 41. And her Assumption
is in memory of her being assumed or
taken up into heaven, both soul and
body, after her dissolution or dormition;
which is a pious and well-founded
tradition in the church.
Q. 1101. For what end are the
several solemnities of Saints?
A. They are instituted by our holy
mother the church, to honour God in his
Saints, and to teach us to imitate their
several kinds of martyrdoms and
sufferings for the faith of Christ, as also
their several ways of virtue and
perfection: as the zeal, charity, and
poverty of the Apostles and Evangelists;
the fortitude of the martyrs the
constancy of the confessors; the purity
and humility of the virgins, &c.
Q. 1102. What meaneth the feast of
St. Peter's installing and erecting
his apostolical chair in the city of
Antioch.
A. It is kept in memory of St. Peter's
installing and erecting his apostolical
chair in the city of Antioch.
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Q. 1103. What is the feast of his
chair at Rome?
A. It is a solemnity in honour of the
translation of his chair from Antioch to
Rome.
Q. 1104. Why are St. Peter and St.
Paul joined in one solemnity?
A. Because they are principle and joint
co-operators under Christ in the
conversion of the world, St. Peter
converting the Jews, and St. Paul, the
Gentiles; as also because both of them
were martyred at he same place Rome,
and on the same day, June 29.
Q. 1105. What means the feast of
St. Peter and Vincula, or St. Peter's
Chains?
A. It is in honour of those chains
wherewith Herod bound St. Peter in
Jerusalem, and from which he was freed
by an angel of God, Acts xii. by only the
touch whereof great miracles were
afterwards effected; to say nothing of
their miraculous joining together many
years after into one chain, with those
iron fetters, with which they had been
imprisoned in Rome.
Q. 1106. What meaneth the feast of
Michaelmas?
A. It is a solemnity or solemn mass in
honour of St. Michael, prince of the
heavenly host, and likewise of all the
nine orders of holy angels; as well to
commemorate that famous battle fought
by him and them in heaven, against the
dragon and his apostate angels, Apoc.
xii. 7. in defence of God's honour; as also
to commend the whole church of God to
their patronage and prayers. And it is
called the dedication of St. Michael, by
reason of a church in Rome, dedicated
on that day to St. Michael, by Pope
Boniface. There is another feast called
the apparition of St. Michael, and is in
memory of his miraculous apparition on
Mount Garganus, where by his own
appointment, a temple was dedicated to
him in Pope Gelasius' time.
Q. 1107. For what reason hath the
holy church ordained a solemnity
in memory of all the Saints?
A. That so at least we might obtain the
prayers and patronage of them all,
seeing the whole year is much too short
to afford us a particular feast for every
Saint.
Q. 1108. What meaneth All Souls
Day?
A. It is a day instituted by the church, in
memory of all the faithful departed, that
by the prayers and suffrages of the
living, they may be freed out of their
purgatory pains, and come to everlasting
rest.
Q. 1109. What means Shrove-tide?
A. It signifies a time of confession; for
our ancestors were used to say, we will
go to the shrift, instead of we will go to
confession, and in the more primitive
times all good Christians went to
confession, the better to prepare
themselves for a holy observation of
Lent, and worthy receiving the blessed
sacrament at Easter.
Q. 1110. What signifies Ash-
Wednesday?
A. It is a day of public penance and
humiliation in the whole church of God,
and is so called from the ceremony of
blessing ashes on that day, wherewith
the priest signeth the people, with a
cross on their foreheads, giving them
this wholesome admonition, Memento
homo, &c. Remember man that thou art
dust, and to dust thou shalt return. So to
103
prepare them for the holy fast of Lent,
and passion of Christ.
Q. 1111. What means Maundy
Thursday?
A. That is a feast in memory of our
Lord's last supper, where he instituted
the blessed Eucharist, or sacrament of
his precious body and blood, and
washed his disciples' feet; and it is called
Maundy Thursday, as it were mandatum
or mandat Thursday from the first word
of the Antiphon, mandatum novum de
vobis, &c. John xiii. 34. "I give unto you
a new command, (or mandat) that you
love one another, as I have loved you;"
which is sing on that day in the
churches, when the prelates begin the
ceremony of washing their people's feet,
in imitation of Christ's washing his
disciple's feet, before he instituted the
blessed sacrament.
Q. 1112. What meaneth Good-
Friday?
A. It is a most sacred and memorable
day of which the great good work of our
redemption was consummated by Christ
on his bloody cross.
Q. 1113. What means the three
days of Tenebrae, before Easter?
A. It is a mournful solemnity, in which
the church laments the death of Christ;
and is called Tenebrae or darkness, to
signify the darkness which overspread
the face of the earth, at the time of his
passion, for which end also the church
extinguisheth all her lights, and after
some silence, at the end of the whole
office, maketh a great and sudden noise,
to represent the rending the veil of the
Temple. The darkness also signifies the
dark time of the night wherein Christ
was apprehended in the garden, and the
noise made by the soldiers and catch-
poles at their seizing on our Saviour's
person.
Q. 1114. What meaneth Rogation
week, being the fifth after Easter?
A. It is a week of public prayer and
confession for the temperateness of the
seasons of the year, and the fruitfulness
of the earth, and it is called Rogation
from the verb Roga, to ask by reason of
the petitions made to God in that behalf.
Q. 1115. What means the Quatuor
tempora, or four Ember weeks, or
Ember Days?
A. Those are times also of public prayer,
fasting, and processions partly instituted
for the successful ordination of the
priest and ministers of the church, and
partly, both to beg and render thanks to
God for the fruits and blessings of the
earth. And are called Ember days, or
days of Ashes, from the no less ancient
than religious custom of using hair-cloth
and ashes, in time of public prayer and
penance; or from the old custom of
eating nothing on those days till night,
and then only a cake baked under the
embers or ashes, which was called,
Panis, subcineritius, or Ember bread.
Q. 1116. What mean the two Holy
Rood Days?
A. Those are two ancient feasts: the one
in memory of the miraculous invention,
or finding out the holy cross by St.
Helen, mother of Constantine the great,
after it had been hid and buried by the
Infidels one hundred and eighty years,
who had erected a statue of Venus in the
place of it. The other in memory of the
exaltation, or setting up the holy cross
by Heraclius the emperor, who having
regained it a second time from the
Persians, after it had been lost fourteen
years, carried it on his own shoulders to
Mount Calvary, and there exalted it with
104
precious body of Christ; the word Rood
in the old Saxon tongue, signifying
Cross.
great solemnity; and it is called Holy
Rood, or Holy Cross, for the great
sanctity which it received by touching
and bearing the oblation of the most
Chapter 25.
Some Ceremonies of the Church Expounded
Q. 1117. WHAT is holy water?
A. A water sanctified by the word of God
and prayer, l Tim. iv. 5, in order to
certain spiritual effects.
Q. 1118. what are those effects?
A. The chief are, 1. To make us mindful
of our baptism, by which we entered into
Christ's mystical body, and therefore we
are taught to sprinkle ourselves with it
as often as we enter the material Temple
(which is a type thereof to celebrate his
praise.) 2. To fortify against the illusions
of evil spirits, against whom it hath great
force as witnessed Theodoret, Eccl. Hist.
1. 5, c. 31. And hence arose the proverb,
He loves it, (speaking of things we hate)
as the Devil loves holy water.
Q. 1119. How ancient is the use of
Holy water?
A. Ever since the apostles' time; Pope
Alexander I. who was but the fourth
Pope from St. Peter, makes mention of it
in one of his epistles. Exod. xxxvii. 8., 2
Par. iv. 6.; 4 Kings ii. 21.; Ps. I. 9.; Heb.
ix. 19.; x. 22; De Cons. Dist. iii. c. 20; B.
Greg. Pastor, Pars ii. c. 5.
Q. 1120. Why is incense offered in
the church?
A. To raise in the mind of the people an
awe of the mysterious in the action to
which it is applied, and to beget a pious
esteem of it, as also to signify, that out
prayers ought to ascend like a sweet
perfume in the sight of God. "Tis
mentioned by St. Dionysius, Eccles
Hierarch, c. 3.
Q. 1121. Why is the cross carried
before us in procession?
A. To show that our pilgrimage in this
life is nothing but a following of Christ
crucified.
Q. 1122. Why are our foreheads
signed with holy ashes on Ash
Wednesday?
A. To remind us of what we are made,
and to admonish us to do penance for
our sins, as the Ninevites did in fasting,
sackcloth, and ashes, especially in the
holy time of Lent.
Q. 1123. Who ordained the solemn
fast of Lent?
A. The twelve Apostles, according to
Heirom Epist. ad Marcel, in memory
and imitation of our Saviour's fasting
forty days.
Q. 1124. Why are the crosses and
holy images covered in time of
Lent?
A. To signify that our sins (for which we
then do penance) interpose between
God and us, and to express an
ecclesiastical kind of mourning in
reference to our Saviour's passion.
105
Q. 1125. Why is a veil drawn
between the altar-piece and the
people in Lent time?
A. To intimate, that, as our sins are as a
veil which binder us from seeing the
beatific vision, or face of God; and as the
veil of the Temple was rent at the death
of Christ, so is the veil of our sins by
virtue of his cross and passion, if we
apply it by worthy fruits of penance.
Q. 1126. What means the fifteen
lights set on the triangular figure
on Wednesday, Thursday, and
Friday in holy-week?
A. The three upper lights signify Jesus,
Mary, and Joseph; the twelve lower, the
twelve Apostles. The triangular figure
signifies, that all light of grace and glory
is from the blessed Trinity; and fourteen
of those lights are extinguished on by
one after every Psalm, to show how all
their light of spiritual comfort was
extinguished for a time in those most
Holy Saints, by the passion and burial of
Christ. The fifteenth light is put under
the altar to signify his being in the
sepulchre, as also the darkness that
overspread the whole earth at his death.
Q. 1127. What signifies the noise
made after a long silence, at the
end of the office of Tenebrae?
A. The silence signifies the horror of our
Saviour's death; the noise, the cleaving
of the rocks and rending the veil of the
Temple which then happened.
Q. 1128. Why is the paschal candle
hallowed and set up at Easter?
A. To signify the new light of the
spiritual joy and comfort, which Christ
brought us at his resurrection; and it is
lighted from the beginning of the Gospel
till after the communion, between
Easter and Ascension, to signify the
apparitions which Christ made to his
disciples during that space.
Q. 1129. Why is the font hallowed?
A. Because the Apostles so ordered it,
according to St. Dionysius, who lived in
their time. 1 Eccl. Hier. c. 2.
Q. 1130. Why is that ceremony
performed at the feast of Easter
and Whitsuntide?
A. To show that, as in baptism we are
buried with Christ, so by virtue of his
resurrection, and the coming of the Holy
Ghost, we ought to rise again, and walk
with him in newness of life.
Q. 1131. Why is the material church
or temple hallowed?
A. Because it bears a figure of the
spiritual, viz. the mystical body of
Christ, which is holy and unspotted,
Ephes. v. 27. as also to move us to some
special reverence and devotion in that
place, and all things should be holy in
some measure, which appertain to the
service of our most Holy God.
Q. 1132. Why is the altar
consecrated?
A. Because if the altar in the old law was
so holy that it sanctified the gift, Matt,
xxiii. 19. much more ought the altar of
the new law to be holy, which is the
place of the body and blood of Christ,
according to Optatus, in his sixth book
against Parmenian the Donatist. "We
have an altar (saith St. Paul) whereof
they (the Jews) have no power to eat,
who serve the Tabernacle." Heb. xiii. 10.
THE END
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